12 Directors You Didn't Know Almost Made Comic Book Movies
5. Joe Dante - Batman
The film rights for Batman were originally acquired from DC in 1979, and by the early 1980s Warner Bros. were actively planning to adapt a script which would serve as an origin story for Batman and Robin, with The Joker and mobster Rupert Thorne set as the villains.
Joe Dante's success with 1984's Gremlins put him in the running to direct, with plans to cast John Lithgow as The Joker, but of course, it never came to pass, and Tim Burton eventually boarded the film for a 1989 release.
Would It Have Worked?: Though Dante's filmmaking skills aren't at all in doubt, he himself admitted that he wasn't the right fit for that particular script. He said, "I actually woke up one night and I said to myself, ‘I can’t do this movie—I’m more interested in The Joker than I am in Batman, and that’s not the way it should be.’ I think I was not the right guy to do the movie."
Above all else, it sure would've been interesting to watch. The Dark Knight got away with making much more of The Joker than Batman, so why not here?