A Pitch For a BANE Movie in the Vein of JOKER Was Planned, But He May End Up THE BATMAN Sequel Instead
With the huge success of Joker, it’s not surprising to think that Warner Bros. would want to see more DC movies like that made with other villains in Batman’s rogues gallery. Now there’s a new report from Heroic Hollywood's Umberto Gonzalez that indicates there was an attempt to pitch a movie about the villain Bane.
I know a lot of readers roll their eyes at Gonzalez’s scoops, but he did brake the news that Henry Cavill could be returning to the DCEU as Superman, as well as the news of Zack Snyder's Justice League coming to HBO Max. I also know how the guy actually gets his scoops, so when he has something to say, I listen.
When it comes to Bane and the pitch, it’s reported:
"After the surprise success of Joaquin Phoenix's award winning Joker, Heroic Hollywood has exclusively learned that there was going to be an attempt to pitch a Bane standalone film to DC executives. In a similar way to the Todd Philips film, it could've offered a filmmaker the chance to explore the villain's psyche with a character study, although hopefully with a little more brawling.”
As for what the film would have been about, they say:
"A potential pitch for the film would have loosely used the Vengeance of Bane story from the comics as the basis for the script. The plot would've introduced Bane to the DC Universe revealing that his tragic origin began before he was even born. Since Batman is key to his motivation across the arc, the Bat could've existed somewhere in the film, even if it was just as a looming presence over Gotham City."
It’s explained that the Bane project didn’t even make it to the pitch stage, and “it’s off the table” because “Warner Bros. might use him in a future Batman film."
That tells me that Matt Reeves might have plans to include Bane in a future sequel to The Batman, but nothing is confirmed right now in regards to that, so we’ll just have to wait and see how this plays out.
Would you have liked to see a Bane solo film in the vein of Joker? I think there’s an interesting story to tell there, for sure. But I do like seeing these villains play off of Batman and other DC characters, so the possibility of seeing him in another Batman movie is cool.