Batmobile Report - H 2012
This story first appeared in the Dec. 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
It’s not exactly the souped-up vehicle in The Dark Knight Rises — but this Batmobile is for sale.
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The first of six cars built for the 1960s ABC series Batman will be auctioned Jan. 19 by Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale, Ariz. Legendary Hollywood car customizer George Barris designed and built it in 1966 for $15,000 in just 15 days using a 1955 Ford Futura concept model (purchased for $1) as a base. The car, which has been in his personal collection ever since, features the original fake Batphone and an oil squirter fashioned from lawn sprinklers.
Auction house CEO Craig Jackson won’t estimate a price but tells THR he “wouldn’t be surprised if the car sold for multiple millions.”
The record price for a movie vehicle is the Aston Martin DB5 driven by Sean Connery in Goldfinger, which sold for $4.6 million in 2010. The next year, though, the famous Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car went for just $805,000, short of its $1 million estimate.
Whatever the price tag, the Batmobile is street legal, so the new owner can drive it home.
