10 Superhero Films You Won't Believe Could Have Happened
6. Darren Aronofsky's Batman
With films like Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, and, uh, mother!, Darren Aronofsky is known for his dark, dramatic, often surreal style. Apparently, just after his 1998 film, Pi, Aronofsky turned his attention toward Batman.
Picture Taxi Driver, but in Gotham. Wayne - played by Joaquin Phoenix - would've become homeless after his parents were killed, and instead of training overseas, he would've read a bunch of martial arts books to hone his fighting skills. A street-dwelling orphan, he is taken in by Big Al, an African-American mechanic, and his son - wait for it - Little Al.
Bruce eventually made his "Batcave" in an abandoned subway station beneath Big Al's auto repair shop, across from which Selina Kyle/Catwoman was working as a dominatrix in a brothel. Gordon would've been the only non-crooked cop in Gotham, a situation that made him suicidal.
As Batman, he would be "a borderline psychotic who begins taking violent vengeance on street thugs," using knives, brass knuckles, and chemical weapons to dish out "justice".
And the Batmobile? It was a Lincoln Continental with a bus engine.
That's... wild. It clearly didn't happen, but the whole "Joaquin Phoenix in Taxi Driver set in Gotham" thing carried over into Joker.