CHAPTER 8:
BATMAN NEVER
Who likes Batman & Robin? A critically panned movie with bad acting, bad production, bad writing, bad characters and bad jokes? The answer: No one!!! Except Jollem. But I digress. Usually, when it comes to blockbusters, the critics don't matter.
Okay, some of the time.
I bring this up because of Batman & Robin. Everyone knows about the critical panning it got. But what about the box office? Well, it's debated if the film was a flop or a decent hit. Well, WB thought it was a flop. So they cancelled Shumacher's next Batman project.
But we're still going to talk about it.
SHUT UP!!!
WB (surprisingly) was impressed with how the filming of Batman & Robin was going, so they gave him and writer Mark Protosevich the thumbs-up for Batman 5. Or Batman Unchained, which somehow became known as Batman Triumphant for some reason.
In Unchained, George Clooney, Chris O'Donnell, and Alicia Silverstone would have returned. The script would have involved Scarecrow, played by Nicolas Cage, and Harley Quinn, who have been Joker's bastard daughted played by Madonna. There would have been a scene where Batman was trapped in Arkham and given fear gas which would have made him see Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, Two-Face, Riddler. Freeze, and Poison Ivy. They also tried to get all the actors who had played them to come back. There was also going to be a subplot with Batman and Robin at odds... FOR THE THIRD TIME!!! However, the critical panning and box office failure of Batman & Robin led to the cancellation of Unchained, as well as a planned Robin spin-off.
Now WB wanted to put Batman in a different direction, but two screenwriters, Lee Shapiro and Stephan Wise, pitched their own Batman movie to WB called Batman: DarKnight.
DarKnight would have seen Batman giving up crime. Dick would have been attending Gotham University at age 45. And Barbra... I don't know what happened to her. Maybe she moved back to her English town where everyone spoke American. This script would also have used the Scarecrow. The Scarecrow would also be responsible for the creation of Man-Bat, whose alter-ego was Kirk Langstorm, an enemy of Johnathan Crane. People would have thought Man-Bat was the return of Batman, but bloodthirsty. So Bruce Wayne would have to clear his name. However, WB rejected the pitch.
The final try at Shumacher's Batman franchise was Shumacher's own version of The Dark Knight Returns. Yes, really. To be fair, Shumacher wanted to make the films darker after Batman & Robin. Not much is known about this project. The most is that Clint Eastwood was considered. Micheal Keaton was wanted to reprise the role. And David Bowie was once again considered for Joker.
The reason WB turned down DarKnight and Dark Knight Returns was that they wanted to focus on two Batman projects: Batman Beyond and Year One.
Batman Beyond was to be written and directed by Boaz Yakin, the director of Remember the Titans. Yakin got the gig in the most unexpected of ways. After Remember the Titans, Yakin's agent told him to do another commercial film. As a joke, Yakin suggested Batman. Little did he know, his agent took him seriously and got him the job of directing Batman.
When asked about Beyond, Yakin said that it would be a darker, cybertech, futruistic version of Raimi's Spider-Man, which sounds kinda cool. However, Yakin left the project, saying his heart wasn't in it. I don't blame him. I mean, he got the gig based on a joke he made. From what I can find, I don't know why this was cancelled. Maybe it was the same reason as Year One.
SEGWAY!!!
WB hired Darren Aronofsky to direct Batman: Year One and cowrite it with Frank Miller, the craziest comic writer alive. Aronofsky would have made a few changes to the comics.
Here's arre the changes I don't mind. Catwoman would have been African-American. Gordon's wife's name is now Ann. A Falcone isn't the head of crime. The film would have focused more on Bruce.
Here are some bad changes. Gordon is suicidal. Bruce became poorand homeless after his parents died. Bruce learns combat from books... Like the 2014 TMNT movie (It was stupid in that too). Batman is more street-based.
Here's one change I have no idead what to think about. Alfred is a black mechanic called "Little Al".
There were a couple of reasons this project got the boot. First of all, this movie was seen as "way too dark". Like, it made BvS look like Seseme Street. Second, WB wanted to instead work on a movie where Batman fought Superman.
WB had cancelled the production of Superman: Flyby. So writer Andrew Kevin Walker and director Wolfgang Peterson pitched a Batman vs. Superman movie to WB. WB approvedthis pitch and asked for a rewrite. And who better to rewrite the script then the guy who wrote... Batman & Robin?
The script had Robin, Gordon, and Alfred dead. But Batman falling in love with a woman who gets killed by the Joker. So Batman wants to kill the Joker in revenge. But Superman tries to stop Batman from breaking his rule. This leads to them fighting. Then it turns out Batman's dead girlfriend was a robot and Lex Luthor was behind the whole thing and Joker was a clone of the Joker who was also dead. What?
Christian Bale and Josh Hartnett were offered the roles of Batman and Superman. However, the project was cancelled after WB restarted their Superman: Flyby project after Abrams submitted another script. Only for the movie to get cancelled again.
However, the cancellation of Goldsmith's Batman/Superman movie led to a Bryan Singer's Superman movie.
TO BE CONTINUED...