Darren Aronofsky Says He Wanted Joaquin Phoenix To Play Batman in His Film
Darren Aronofsky's Batman film would have been unlike any other version of Batman than we've seen before. He recently talked about it, explaining that the Joker origin film currently being developed at Warner Bros. sounded a lot like the pitch he made for his Batman film before Christopher Nolan did his thing with the franchise. The movie never happened, though, because it was apparently too dark for the studio.
In a recent interview with Yahoo Movies, the director revealed who he wanted to play the caped crusader. That actor was Joaquin Phoenix, and you know what? I think he would've made a great Batman! Phoenix is such an incredible actor and he would've brought something crazy and heavy to the role. The director says:
"I always wanted Joaquin Phoenix for Batman. It’s funny, I think we were just sort of out of time with our idea. I understood that [with] comics, that there’s room for all different types of titles, but I think Hollywood at that time was still kind of in the Golden Age of comics, and they were still just doing the classic titles in classic ways."
His film was loosely based on Frank Miller's Batman: Year One and when previously talking about it in an interview with The Guardian he explains:
“It was a hard R-rated Batman. What I pitched them was Travis Bickle meets The French Connection — a real guy running around fighting crime. No super-powers, no villains, just corruption. For the Batmobile, I had him taking a bus engine and sticking it in a black Lincoln. Real low-tech geek stuff.”
When Miller talked about the project, he said it was the first time that he worked with someone whose vision of Batman was darker than his.
There's no doubt that Aronofsky would have given us an insane Batman movie. After watching mother! I'm still not sure the world is ready for his vision of Batman! But, I sure would still love to see it!
Would you have liked to see Phoenix in the role of Batman?