10 Comic Book Movies Hollywood Didn't Have The Balls To Make

10. Batman: Year One

Elements of Frank Miller's Batman: Year One - which chronicles Bruce Wayne's first year as the Caped Crusader and the start of his partnership with James Gordon - can be glimpsed in a lot of the existing live-action movies, though Hollywood has never had the guts to go ahead with a fully-fledged adaptation of this seminal work.

Generally speaking, that reluctance stems from the fact that Year One is a minimalistic take on the iconic character. In other words, this is more "man" than "Batman," with an emphasis on theatrics and detective work over gadgets, the Batmobile, and friendly sidekicks. It's Batman stripped back, not to mention it's gritty as hell.

From a studio executive's point of view, Year One is basically missing all of the things that makes Batman Batman. From a fan perspective, of course, its unique take is what has made Year One such a brilliant work in the canon, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't ultimately prove difficult to sell to wider audiences.

In the early '90s, a Year One film did almost come to exist, set to be helmed by Darren Aronofsky, but in the end, the studio wanted something they could market to kids, and the script that the director produced - with Frank Miller at his side - was deemed to be the very opposite of child-friendly. Well, what did they expect?