Darren Aronofsky Says He Wanted Joaquin Phoenix To Star In His Failed 'Batman' Film But WB Had Other Ideas

Back before Christopher Nolan saved Batman from the clutches of Joel Schumacher’s campy, ridiculous Gotham, helming 2005’s “Batman Begins,” Warner Bros. had famously approached another auteur filmmaker to direct the superhero reboot—Darren Aronofsky. The director had just come off “Requiem for a Dream,” with his debut “Pi” being his only other film. And it appeared that WB wanted Aronofsky to take “Batman” in a whole different direction. Well, until the studio realized what direction that would have been.

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Speaking to Empire, Aronofsky recalled why he and WB parted ways in the early-2000s over “Batman” and what his version of the Caped Crusader would have looked like. Needless to say, the ‘Requiem’ filmmaker had very anti-Schumacher ideas in mind.

“The studio wanted Freddie Prinze Jr and I wanted Joaquin Phoenix,” he explained. “I remember thinking, ‘Uh oh, we’re making two different films here.’ That’s a true story. It was a different time. The ‘Batman’ I wrote was definitely a way different type of take than they ended up making.”

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As for what his Phoenix-led “Batman” film might have looked like? Aronofsky explained that he wanted to subvert expectations after Joel Schumacher’s “Batman & Robin,” which took the campy nature of the character and dialed it up to 11.

For the new “Batman” film, the director wanted to team with Frank Miller, famed comic book writer-artist that penned some incredible ‘Batman’ stories over the years, to help shape his new film, which would have felt more akin to “Death Wish,” “The French Connection,” and “Taxi Driver.”

“It was an amazing thing because I was a big fan of his graphic novel work, so just getting to meet him was exciting back then,” the director said. “The Batman that was out before me was ‘Batman & Robin,’ the famous one with the nipples on the Batsuit, so I was really trying to undermine that, and reinvent it. That’s where my head went.”

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Of course, we know that Aronofsky’s “Batman” never got the green light and the job eventually went to Nolan, who would craft three of the best superhero films of all time. So, it’s difficult to know what would have happened if WB allowed Aronofsky free-reign to craft his “Batman” story. One thing is for sure, it would have been well worth the price of admission, just to see the future Joker, Joaquin Phoenix, take on the role in a hard-boiled superhero film.