Darren Aronofsky Was Too “Focused” On ‘The Fountain’ To Take His “Down & Dirty” R-Rated ‘Batman’ Movie With Joaquin Phoenix Seriously

You might remember that “Caught Stealing” filmmaker Darren Aronofsky had once flirted with the idea of tackling a superhero project with things like “The Wolverine” (James Mangold ended up replacing him), and an early version of the Batman reboot that would later morph into Christopher Nolan‘s “Batman Begins.”

In a new interview with Josh Horowitz on the podcast “Happy Sad Confused,” the director mused on why his Batman movie he co-wrote with comic book legend Frank Miller (also worked on the “RoboCop” film franchise and worked on the “Sin City” films alongside Robert Rodriguez), never materialized, as he was way too focused on getting “The Fountain” made, which starred Hugh Jackman (the two nearly reunited for “The Wolverine”) and his then-wife, Rachel Weisz.

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“I was really focused on ‘The Fountain,’ I never really took that seriously. I wanted to make ‘Fountain,’ that’s where I was at,” Aronofsky candidly said of his short time developing his Batman movie for WB. He continued, “[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 love and the search for the Fountain of Youth, and I felt like if I was on ‘Batman’ they might let me make [‘The Fountain’], which is kind of what happened, sort of.”

“I think the Batman that me, and Frank pitched/wrote was really down and dirty, duct tape kind of movie. That was never really going to be selling Batmobiles, I don’t think I was the right guy at the right time. It was rated R…I think the whole world of superhero films had to come out first to scrape the bottom of the barrel before going to R-rated films like some of the later ones.”

Adding that he indeed wanted Joaquin Phoenix, who went on to play “The Joker” in the billion-dollar hit for Todd Phillips that earned him a Best Actor Oscar statue, to play Bruce Wayne. However, the studio was hot on the idea of “Scooby Doo” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer” actor Freddie Prince Jr. for that iteration of Batman (likely echoing the studio’s outdated template previously used to cast young talent like Chris O’Donnell as Robin and Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl).

Also, Aronofsky clarifies that his brief involvement with things like “Watchmen” didn’t last much longer than a week, although he was keen to tackle the Alan Moore material. And he was never really attached to “Man of Steel.”

“I thought it was a really committed, faithful to the source material, and it was great,” Aronofsky said of Zack Snyder‘s version of “Watchmen.”

You can watch/listen to that full chat with Aronofsky below, and a reminder that “Caught Stealing” hits theaters on August 29.