Exploring Darren Aronofsky’s unmade ‘Batman’ movie
If it weren’t for Christopher Nolan, the superhero genre would look markedly different from how it looks today. The trajectory of the comic book adaptation would realistically have been altered forever had Darren Aronofsky ended up making Batman: Year One.
After Joel Schumacher nuked the franchise with the dismal Batman & Robin, a fresh coat of paint was needed to reinvigorate the Caped Crusader’s big-screen adventures. That’s exactly what Nolan brought to the table with 2005’s Batman Begins, which ended up as one of the most influential blockbusters of the 21st century, with the film being name-dropped by virtually every ‘dark and gritty’ reboot ever since.
His sequel, The Dark Knight, was bigger, bolder, and even better. When combined with the double-whammy of Marvel Studios’ Iron Man, which was also released in the summer of 2008, cinematic stories of costumed crimefighters would never be the same again.
That makes it even more intriguing to imagine what would have happened had Aronofsky’s Year One come to fruition, especially when it was poised to make some drastic departures from the source material. Much like Nolan, he was a filmmaking wunderkind with a background in hard-hitting and acclaimed existential drama, but unlike the Batman Begins director, he was planning to rip up the rulebook.
Although Frank Miller’s Year One served as the inspiration, Aronofsky planned to upend everything comic book readers and the moviegoing public knew about Batman. Instead of trusty butler Alfred Pennyworth, a homeless and penniless Bruce Wayne would be taken under the wing of a mechanic known as Little Al.
The Batcave would have been located in an abandoned subway station, and the Batmobile would have been a souped-up Lincoln Continental instead of a bespoke creation. Catwoman was written in the script as a dominatrix prostitute named Mistress Selina, and there were plans to introduce several new characters that weren’t present in the source material.
“It’s somewhat based on the comic book,” was Aronofsky’s admission at the time. “Toss out everything you can imagine about Batman! Everything! We’re starting completely anew.” That had the potential to anger a lot of long-time fans, but the director ploughed ahead with Matthew Libatique recruited as cinematographer and plans to maintain an R-rating.
However, disagreements with studio Warner Bros slowed development to such a crawl that Batman: Year One was eventually abandoned altogether. Aronofsky and the boardroom had decidedly differing opinions on just how dark, brooding, and violent they wanted the next Bat-flick to be.
As he explained to Empire, he knew it was never going to work based on how far apart they were on casting suggestions. “The studio wanted Freddie Prinze Jr, and I wanted Joaquin Phoenix,” he said. “I remember thinking, ‘Uh oh, we’re making two different films here.’ That’s a true story. It was a different time. The Batman I wrote was definitely a way different type of take than they ended up making.”
Ironically, Christian Bale was another name under consideration for the title role and ended up doing a phenomenal job once Aronofsky was out, Nolan was in, and Batman Begins changed the game.
