Columbia PicturesIn 2003 a rumour proliferated online that back in 1946 Orson Welles had planned to direct a Batman film. The information uncovered included a wealth of detail on Welles intentions for his film The Bat-Man and painted a compelling picture of what might have been. The word was that Welles wanted to portray Batman himself but the studio instead forced through the casting of hot property Gregory Peck. Peck was to be supported by a dream cast that included Marlene Dietrich as Catwoman, George Raft as Two-Face, James Cagney as The Riddler and Basil Rathbone as The Joker. The Bat-Man would have been a hard-nosed noir take on the material - faithful to the original incarnation of the character. It would be enough to make you weep for what we were denied if it hadnt all been revealed as an almighty hoax orchestrated by comics scribe Mark Millar on the CBR message boards. Millars hoax caught the imagination of comic fans and inspired a wealth of mocked up fan-art posters and even a fairly impressive fan-made trailer. Using Millars retrofitting of superhero cinema history as a jump-off point this article re-imagines ten major superhero properties as if they had been placed in the hands of some of the greatest directors ever. Some of the ideas that emerge fall squarely on the insane side of crazy but others will make you wish the golden age of superhero cinema had started a good few decades earlier.