You've probably heard about the frustrating fiasco that ended with Whedon leaving leadership of the Wonder Woman movie, but before that sad turn of events, Joss pitched a pre-Nolan Batman script and was hopeful to helm the Dark Knight! MTV got him to talk about it...
After a little prodding, Whedon opened up a bit about his “Batman” idea, even going into detail about what villain he planned on using…or not using.
“In my version, there was actually a new [villain], it wasn’t one of the classics — which is probably why they didn’t use it,” he laughed. “It was more of a ‘Hannibal Lector’ type — he was somebody already in Arkham Asylum that Bruce went and sort of studied with. It was a whole thing — I get very emotional about it, I still love the story. Maybe I’ll get to do it as a comic one day [ed. note: HINT HINT, DC Comics... ].”
Despite losing out to Nolan, Whedon has no hard feelings, and gave nothing but praise to the Director Who Can Do No Wrong. “I just love the respect [Nolan has] for the character and the world,” he said. “I thought Christopher Nolan’s done an amazing job of bringing out the comic book, and I see a lot of movies [coughs “HULK”] — sorry, I had a Hulk stuck in my throat — that don’t really have the aesthetic or the pathos or really get why the comic book works.”