10 Shocking Batman Plans You Won’t Believe Almost Happened

5. Darren Aronofsky Almost Made A Batman: Year One Movie

Batman Year One
DC Comics

Back in the pre-Batman v. Superman days, Batman and Robin was everybody's favourite superhero movie punching bag. With such a huge amount of backlash for the overly goofy film, Warner Bros. were ready to go in the complete opposite direction for a sequel.

It was actually Joel Schumacher who suggested adapting Frank Miller's uber-gritty retelling of the Dark Knight's origin. Warner liked the idea, but they kicked Schumacher to the curb and went to look for a different director.

They settled on Darren Aronofsky, who had just finished adapting basically every anti-drug video you had to watch in school into Requiem for a Dream.

Aronofsky worked together with Miller on a screenplay and they submitted the script to Warner. You're probably expecting it to be pretty close to the source material right?

In Darren Aronofsky's Batman: Year One, Bruce Wayne is a homeless psychopath taken in by two mechanics named Big Al and Little Al. As Batman, he teams up with a chain-smoking and womanising Jim Gordon to take down the corrupt Commissioner Loeb.

In the final act, Loeb would take Gordon's wife hostage, but Batman would stop him by throwing a knife through his eye.

Warner Bros. decided to pass on the film.

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I was just a mild-mannered NCTJ accredited journalist until one day I found out the truth... that I could share my nerdy ramblings with people on the internet! It's just like mumbling to myself on the train, but without all the strange looks.