Was Darren Aronofsky actually cooking? The director reveals some new information about his cancelled R-rated take on Batman.
The early 2000s were an odd time for DC. The franchise was coming off Batman & Robin, an especially goofy take on the Caped Crusader made at a time where superheroes were becoming grittier and grittier. There was a hunger to reinvent Batman for new audiences, with Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins ushering in 20 years of the grounded and brooding characterization for the Dark Knight. Yet before Nolan got his hands on the character, Darren Aronofsky was in the running.
For those unaware, Darren Aronofsky is a director that focuses heavily on psychological dramas. His biggest claim to fame is Requiem For A Dream, a heart wrenching film about drug addiction and isolation. And it seems that his take on Batman wasn’t going to be much different. While speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the director remarked that the film wasn’t going to be selling many kids toys.
“[Frank Miller and I] co-wrote a script. But my whole strategy on that one was I wanted to make this totally wild, crazy film about the search for the Fountain of Youth, and I thought if I was on Batman they’d kind of let me make it. Which is kind of what happened…sort of. The Batman that me and Frank pitched was really kind of down and dirty, duct-tape type of movie. It wasn’t gonna be selling Batmobiles. I don’t think I was the right guy at the right time. It was rated R.”
Darren Aronofsky’s Cancelled Batman Movie
While Darren Aronofsky and Frank Miller were planning to adapt Batman: Year One, that ended up mostly being in name only as the film continued to progress. The proposal for the film took some major liberties with the original comics, with Bruce Wayne being homeless after his parents died and Alfred being a mechanic that went by “Little Al”.
The film also would have incorporated elements from the earliest Batman comics, with the Caped Crusader primarily using chemical weapons to attack his enemies rather than his martial arts prowess. Given these radical changes, it’s likely for the best that Darren Aronofsky’s Batman movie ultimately got cancelled. Though, if there was one cancelled film fans might want to pull from the multiverse, this certainly nears the top of the list!
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