The History Of Every Canceled Batman Movie

The Caped Crusader's ongoing film saga ranks among the top five highest-grossing movie
franchises in the United States.
But he's also faced his share of setbacks along the way.
For every Bat-blockbuster that made its way to theaters, there's a take on the character
that unceremoniously died in development.
Here's the history behind every one of those canceled Batman movies.
The Batman
Getting Tim Burton's 1989 Batman onto the big screen was a difficult process.
Ten years before Michael Keaton made his Dark Knight debut, producers Benjamin Melniker
and Michael Uslan acquired the film rights to Batman so they could adapt the character
in the same vein as Superman.
They wanted to have a definitive, dark version of Batman on film, and producers Jon Peters
and Peter Guber agreed when they boarded the project in November 1979.
Four years later, the script by James Bond and Superman screenplay co-writer Tom Mankiewicz,
simply titled The Batman, was completed, focusing on Batman and Robin's origins, with the Joker
as the central villain.
While the Batman/007 version of Batman would have been awesome, the project went through
multiple developers and producers, losing bits and pieces along the way.
In the end, the studio hired Tim Burton to direct, who felt the treatment was too similar
to Superman and would be a better fit for a TV series.
He changed virtually every aspect of the movie, so while they didn't get everything they wanted,
the producers still got their darker version of Batman on the silver screen.
It just took a decade to make it happen.
Robin's spinoff
When Chris O'Donnell joined the franchise as Robin for 1995's Batman Forever, he seemed
poised for a long run as the character.
He returned for 1997's Batman & Robin, and planned to reprise his role in a possible
fifth film, but that never came to fruition.
Warner Bros. also briefly pursued a Robin spinoff, which O'Donnell confirmed as recently
as 2012.
As he told Access Hollywood,
"They were going to do [a Robin movie] back in the day.
Then [Batman & Robin] was such a bomb, they were like, 'Scrap that!'
That was the end of that."
Batman Unchained
Joel Schumacher told Variety that he'd always planned to make three Batman movies.
But unfortunately for everyone involved in Schumacher's Bat-saga, Batman & Robin tanked,
sending the franchise into years of development hell, and leaving that third movie unrealized.
The problems weren't just at the box office however.
Akiva Goldsman, who wrote the screenplays for Schumacher's first two Bat-flicks, opted
not to return for the next installment.
I Am Legend screenwriter Mark Protosevich took Goldsman's place and came up with the
name Batman Unchained, which focused on Scarecrow as the central villain.
Schumacher wanted Nicolas Cage play the fear-inducing bad guy, saying that he owed the world, quote,
"a real Batman movie."
But Batman & Robin crashed and burned, taking Batman Unchained with it.
Changing course completely, Warner Bros. started looking into the idea of making a Batman Beyond
or Batman: Year One film instead.
Batman: DarKnight
Writers Lee Shapiro and Stephen Wise had an idea for a full Bat-reboot.
This time, instead of Batman and Robin in their primes, the duo wanted to see Batman
retired, with Dick Grayson attending college.
In the proposed film, Dr. Jonathan Crane, better known as the Scarecrow, still played
a prominent role as a professor of psychology at Gotham University.
Also appearing?
Dr. Kirk Langstrom, who turns into the monstrous Man-Bat.
The two doctors get into a confrontation, and Crane accidentally initiates Kirk's transformation
into his bat-like form.
After seeing Man-Bat terrorize Gotham and —that the city's residents are mistaking
him for the real Batman — the Dark Knight comes out of retirement to clear his name.
The darker idea was pitched to the studio, but after being passed through multiple levels
of approval and a few confirmations from producers, the studio's director of development passed
on the movie.
Batman: Year One
Schumacher still wanted to give Batman fans a proper Caped Crusader, and his planned adaptation
of Frank Miller's Batman: Year One might have fulfilled that goal.
Ultimately, the studio parted ways with Schumacher and went with Requiem for a Dream director
Darren Aronofsky instead.
After hiring Aronofsky, the studio bolstered the project's pedigree further by bringing
Frank Miller himself on board to script.
In an interview with IGN, Aronofsky urged fans to, quote,
"...toss out everything you can imagine about Batman!
Everything!
We're starting completely anew."
Unfortunately, the studio didn't get into Miller's version of the script, so they hired
the Wachowskis of Matrix fame to write a treatment.
Again, the studio wasn't satisfied, so they turned to Joss Whedon, whose take also didn't
pass muster with the studio.
They finally ended up shelving the idea altogether in 2002.
Batman Beyond
Warner Bros. also floated the idea of making a Batman Beyond film inspired by the hit animated
show, which had debuted in 1999.
Bruce Timm and Paul Dini's series featured Terry McGinnis, a teenager who takes over
the mantle of Batman under the guidance of a retired Bruce Wayne.
The studio's movie division liked Batman Beyond so much that they wanted to make a live-action
version for the big screen.
They hired Remember the Titans director Boaz Yakin to helm the project, with Dini writing
the script.
Sources told Variety in 2000 that a Batman Beyond film didn't interfere with Warner Bros.'
plans to continue with a fifth Batman movie, but that changed quickly.
By August 2001, Dini said that the studio had shelved the live-action adaptation.
What's more, later that year the Batman Beyond animated series was cancelled.
Batman vs. Superman: Asylum
Long before Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice hit the big screen, Warner
Bros. previously had plans to pit the DC Universe's two biggest heroes against each other.
Andrew Kevin Walker, who penned the incredibly dark Se7en, pitched an idea that involved
Batman coming out of retirement, shortly after his wife's death, to join a recently-divorced
Superman.
Until, of course, they're duped by Lex Luthor into fighting each other.
Sound familiar?
Akiva Goldsman, returning to the franchise once more, revised Walker's script in 2002,
which was enough to convince Warner Bros. to move forward with the project.
At least for a little while.
Wolfgang Petersen, director of Air Force One and The NeverEnding Story, intended to direct
the film in 2003.
But the project was derailed when JJ Abrams jumped into the fray with a script for a movie
called Superman: Flyby, which included a very different version of the Man of Steel.
According to Petersen, the studio decided to try separate versions of Superman and Batman
instead, resulting in Superman Returns and Batman Begins.
Justice League: Mortal
2017's Justice League wasn't the first attempt to bring Batman and the rest of the "league"
to the big screen.
In 2009, the first plan to bring D.C.'s heroes together came awfully close to hitting theaters.
Written by Kieran and Michele Mulroney, Justice League: Mortal was to be helmed by Mad Max
director George Miller.
Its cast included D.J.
Cotrona as Superman, Armie Hammer as Batman, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman, Adam Brody as
the Flash, Common as Green Lantern, and Teresa Palmer as Talia al Ghul, with Jay Baruchel
playing the villain Maxwell Lord.
Cameras were ready to roll, but the writers' strike of the late 2000s put a damper on the
movie.
The overwhelming success of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight convinced Warner Brothers
that a Justice League - with a different Batman - simply wouldn't work.
Justice League: Mortal is the Justice League movie that never was..
So when you're watching Ben Affleck throw down with Khal Drogo, just think about how
much crazier it would've been if the director of Mad Max had gotten to the League first…
"Yeah!"
"Oh, what a day!
What a lovely day!"
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The History Of Every Canceled Batman Movie

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