21 Batman Movies That Almost Happened
10. Joel Schumacher's The Dark Knight Returns
In the wake of Batman & Robin's failure and critical mauling, it became all too easy to blame Joel Schumacher - especially when the director openly apologised and admitted that all of the issues were down to him - but the simple fact is that Warner Bros. directed him towards the more family-friendly, more ridiculous tone that was so far removed from Burton's vision. To his eternal credit, Schumacher actually attempted to rail against that influence, first attempting to make The Dark Knight instead of Batman & Robin;
I think Im the most envious of Chris Nolan because he got to do The Dark Knight and thats the one I begged to do as my second Batman film. I wanted to do a whole other thing, because we had kind of re-invented franchise with Val as Batman and it was a very young, sexy, and much less expensive movie. We brought in Robin and I wanted to make The Dark Knightdesperately, but the studio didnt want that and its their money and theyre my bosses.
And then for a brief time in 1998 after Batman & Robin bombes, Warner Bros. again entertained the idea of a darker Batman project, based on Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, which Schumacher was once more pushing for. But it never got beyond the discussion stages - with Clint Eastwood and Michael Keaton rumoured to be in poll position to be the older Bat, and David Bowie in line to be the Joker once more - and a script was never actually created.