7. Darren Aronofsky's Batman: Year One
After the monumental disappointment that was Batman & Robin, Warner Bros. was faced with a nearly impossible task: move forward with Batman, one of their most popular and lucrative characters. Joel Schumacher had pitched the idea of adapting Frank Miller's Batman: Year One as a reboot of the series, and in 2000 WB decided to go with the idea (but leave Schumacher behind). They instead turned their sights on Darren Aronofsky, who had made quite the splash in tinseltown after Pi and Requiem for a Dream, hoping that he would bring a fresh, darker take on the character. Little did they know, Aronofsky would take matters a bit too far, making several drastic departures from the source material (despite bringing along Frank Miller himself to help him adapt the film) and giving the Dark Knight a more violent edge. Aronofsky expressed an interest in throwing out everything about Batman and starting over: "It's somewhat based on Frank Miller's novel. Frank Miller is writing the screenplay with me, but it's going to be very different than anything in Year One, and anything you've seen. Toss out everything you can imagine about Batman! Everything! We're staring completely new." Though reinventing and revitalizing a character in desperate need of a reboot can be a good idea, it's important to keep the original, fundamental aspects intact. Aronofsky's script included several changes that would have made Bats nearly unrecognisable. Bruce Wayne was no longer a billionaire, and instead had hardly a penny to his name. He no longer grew up an orphan, but was found on the streets and raised by an African-American mechanic named "Big Al." Bruce developed his Batman persona overtime, slowly incorporated gadgets into his arsenal and would have closely resembled Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver. As much as fans would love an adaptation of Miller's Year One, Aronofsky's vision would have strayed a bit too far from the source material for fans to truly accept. In fact, comic book fans are the most adamant group when it comes to preserving aspects of the characters they hold dear, so completely revamping Bruce's history would have been met with quite the backlash from Batfans. The film ultimately fell apart after the studio refused to greenlight Aronofsky's project, and moved on to another failed idea: Superman Vs. Batman (more on that later). They then went back to the drawing board and tried another take at Year One, which eventually became Christopher Nolans' Batman Begins (which Aronofsky was offered, but refused). Needless to say, Nolan's film would be the successful relaunch of the character that Warner Bros. had been waiting for.