10 Things You Need To Know About Darren Aronofsky's Batman
9. Frank Miller Worked On The Script
In fact Aronofsky's interest in the source material stretched further than just taking inspiration. He actually called Miller himself in to work on the script, with the early drafts carrying the comic book writer's name only (probably thanks to Director's Guild rules). Miller actually had some prior experience in Hollywood, bringing his own particularly nihilistic worldview to the Robocop sequels he wrote draft screenplays for the second and third films, both deemed unfilmable. Apparently his Batman comics were quite the thing in Hollywood, with the acclaim and hype surrounding his earlier dystopian future story The Dark Knight Returns getting him the Robocop job in the first place. It was his name attached to Year One that got Warner Bros interested in Darren Aronofsky's take on Batman...even though both writers were planning on a fairly loose adaptation. It's somewhat based on the comic book, the director said. toss out everything you can imagine about Batman! Everything! We're starting completely anew. Miller was clearly happy to make changes to his book, since he did the lion's share of the scripting, but ultimately his version of the screenplay ended up miles away from the comics different enough that the studio canned the project.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
