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'Batman: Year One': Darren Aronofsky wanted Joaquin Phoenix for R-rated Bat-movie

L

LordOfLore

Banned
Link.

“It’s funny, I think we were just sort of out of time with our idea,” Aronofsky told Yahoo Movies. “I understood that [with] comics, there’s room for all different types of titles, but I think Hollywood at that time was still in the Golden Age of comics, and they were still just doing the classic titles in classic ways.”

Coming off his breakthrough Pi in 1998 and the critical and commercial disappointment of Joel Schumacher’s campy Batman and Robin (1997), Aronofsky initially pitched his vision for another gritty, grounded-in-reality Miller-penned comic as a way to reboot Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, with Clint Eastwood to star as an older, broken-down Batman. Warners liked the idea but it never got off the drawing board, and Aronofsky eventually turned his energy to adapting Batman: Year One, which offers a non-canonical, noirish version of the classic origin tale.

And Aronofsky had a specific actor at the top of his wishlist. “I always wanted Joaquin Phoenix for Batman,” the director revealed. But Warners torpedoed the idea of his R-rated superhero film and instead focused on Nolan‘s Dark Knight saga.

It has taken years for Hollywood to catch up with the idea, long established in the comics themselves, that alternate visions of a comics character can exist side-by-side (and Warners even co-opted elements of The Dark Knight Returns for Batman v Superman). Aronofsky is excited to see Warners’ upcoming experiment with this idea, a stand-alone Joker film directed by The Hangover‘s Todd Phillips and produced by Martin Scorsese.

“I think audiences now, they’ve seen enough comic films that they’re game for that,” he said. “So I think we were a little bit out of time for our idea.”
Click to expand...

Full interview at the link.
 
H

Hex

Banned
Darren Aronofsky is a fucking idiot.
That is as shitty a choice as Leo as the Joker (thankfully debunked)
 
B

broncobuster

Banned
He's been talking about it across the mother! press tour,

Q: Yes, same here. So I want to ask about this – whenever you are brought up, there's always a discussion about your involvement with Batman. You once expressed interest and everyone now says "oh, I would have loved to see Darren's version." Or even, "Darren's version would have been too dark for the studio." Do you still feel that way?

Darren: You know what, I think it's finally… I think we were basically – whatever it is – 15 years too early. Because I hear the way they’re talking about the Joker movie and that's exactly – that was my pitch. I was like: we're going to shoot in East Detroit and East New York. We're not building Gotham. The Batmobile – I wanted to be a Lincoln Continental with two bus engines in it.

Q: Seriously?

Darren: Yeah, with two bus engines, all duct taped together. It was the duct tape MacGyver Batman. And some of my ideas got out there through other films. Like the ring with "BW", Bruce Wayne's ring making the scar was our idea and I think that was in Zack's or something. Which is fine, you write these ideas and they get out. We were all about reinventing it and trying to make it more Taxi Driver visceral. That was the whole pitch. But the toy people were like, "oh it can't be a Lincoln Continental, you have to make a Batmobile."

And I think with Chris [Nolan's] work, which was great, it was just - he hit it [out of the park]. He was able to get the darkness in, and the psychology of the character, yet he was still able to give the gizmo thing, which I wasn't ever really interested in. So, I think that's the back story. I think we were ahead of our time. And I was always like; why can't we make a more lower-budget rated-R [movie], just like in comics you have different brands but and now they're finally doing that. They're doing the spinoffs, which is great. This is an exciting time because they'll be able to take more risks and we won't be seeing the same superhero movie over and over again. You'll get things like Deadpool, which was a relief as compared to seeing the same film over and over again.
Click to expand...
 
B

badscooter

Member
I don't get the obsession with grimdark Batman. In his best version (TAS), he had warmth, compassion, humor - he was a human being, which was always supposed to be his greatest strength. I don't get it.
 
K

KissVibes

Banned
broncobuster said:
He's been talking about it across the mother! press tour,
Click to expand...

I could kinda see the batmobile being a lincon continental

St0ERHS.jpg
 
M

More_Badass

Member
After seeing mother, I kind of want to see him tackle a full-fledged action thriller. He and his frequent cinematographer make a good team; the action scenes in his Batman could be pretty amazing, especially doing Year One's Batman vs SWAT
 
R

robotrock

Banned
badscooter said:
I don't get the obsession with grimdark Batman. In his best version (TAS), he had warmth, compassion, humor - he was a human being, which was always supposed to be his greatest strength. I don't get it.
Click to expand...
His parents were murdered in front of him when he was 8
 
X

Xe4

Banned
I kind of want to see this as an art house flick, not gonna lie.
Would be an interesting take on the material.
 
S

Shaanyboi

Banned
He also wanted Alfred to be some chop shop mechanic named Big Al.

And that Bruce leaving behind a mark shaped by the letters T and W for his father was instead misconstrued as a bat.

No thanks.
 
R

RangerX

Banned
badscooter said:
I don't get the obsession with grimdark Batman. In his best version (TAS), he had warmth, compassion, humor - he was a human being, which was always supposed to be his greatest strength. I don't get it.
Click to expand...

Not everyone agrees TAS Batman is the best version thats why.I'd rather grimdark, fucked in the head, Arkham Asylum Batman.
 
B

broncobuster

Banned
Xe4 said:
I kind of want to see this as an art house flick, not gonna lie.
Would be an interesting take on the material.
Click to expand...

I think the neat thing about WB doing Elseworlds movies is it allows for wild different takes of the material. Assuming the Joker movie is success and all. Unclear when there are already assumptions that the standalone Joker movie is an origin story for Jared Leto's Joker, when it is its own thing, in its own universe.
 
P

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
This is a rarity:

Warner Brothers actually made the right decision.
 
W

watershed

Banned
Eh, I don't have any faith in these "my movie would have been cool as shit" type comments about movies that never happened.
 
A

Alienous

Member
"Hey Batman do you ... do you have the same lip scar as Bruce Wayne?"

I don't know if I could suspend my disbelief.
 
S

SomTervo

Member
Shaanyboi said:
He also wanted Alfred to be some chop shop mechanic named Big Al.

And that Bruce leaving behind a mark shaped by the letters T and W for his father was instead misconstrued as a bat.

No thanks.
Click to expand...

Why not? There are going to be endless iterations of Batman from now until the end of time/civilisation.

Let some of them mix things up a little.

badscooter said:
I don't get the obsession with grimdark Batman. In his best version (TAS), he had warmth, compassion, humor - he was a human being, which was always supposed to be his greatest strength. I don't get it.
Click to expand...

No it wasn't. He's not superman or spiderman. He has compassion and humour but it's not "the point" of his character.

Hex said:
Darren Aronofsky is a fucking idiot.
That is as shitty a choice as Leo as the Joker (thankfully debunked)
Click to expand...

Woof. Did he piss in your cereal?

Alienous said:
"Hey Batman do you ... do you have the same lip scar as Bruce Wayne?"

I don't know if I could suspend my disbelief.
Click to expand...

Haha that's a good point. Maybe the cowl would be redesigned.
 
S

Snaku

Banned
badscooter said:
I don't get the obsession with grimdark Batman. In his best version (TAS), he had warmth, compassion, humor - he was a human being, which was always supposed to be his greatest strength. I don't get it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, so far I think as far as tone, Batman Forever is the closest any of the live action films have gotten. It's too bad the execs felt the need to completely fuck up Batman & Robin.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
None of you can't say you wouldn't want to see Batman Vs Superman starring Joaquin Phoenix and Nicolas Cage.
 
A

AuthenticM

Member
I would watch the fuck out of a Clint Eastwood old Batman.

HStallion said:
None of you can't say you wouldn't want to see Batman Vs Superman starring Joaquin Phoenix and Nicolas Cage.
Click to expand...

fuck, guys: we need to invent a transdimensional vehicle. We have to watch this fuckin' movie.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
robotrock said:
oh my fucking god yessssss.

maybe m night shyamalan will get us joaquin phoenix and nicolas cage in the same movie. maybe one day....
Click to expand...

They can be in the sequel to Glass alongside
Sam Jackson, Bruce Willis and James McAvoy
 
J

jett

D-Member
I'm sure Aronofksy would have made this work somehow, but he's correct that he probably isn't the right choice for a massmarket product of this sort. He says it himself, he wasn't interested at all in any compromise.

It would've been interesting though. It's still a great shame that he didn't direct Man of Steel. What could've been. We would've avoided this entire snyderverse debacle at least.
 
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