3) Darren Aronofsky’s Batman: Year One
Around the same time that the Batman Beyond movie was being considered, another very different take on the Batman mythos was underway. A movie vaguely based on Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One comic, it would have been written and directed by Requiem for a Dream’s Darren Aronofsky.
Although the script was co-written by Miller, the movie would have played fast and loose with the character’s history. It would have seen Bruce made homeless after his parents are killed and taken in by African-American mechanic Little Al (a version of Alfred).
Rather than the usual billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne, we would have seen a gritty, street-level Batman, who drove around in a souped-up Lincoln Convertible and whose gadgets consisted of throwing acid in people’s faces.
When the project eventually fell in Christopher Nolan’s lap, Aronofsky’s and Miller’s plans were scrapped. Well, everything apart from the actor they had hoped to feature in the main role: a man named Christian Bale…
