There Was a Super Dark Version of BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN Written for Colin Ferrell and Jude Law's Scrapped Movie

Before Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was released in theaters in 2016, there was another Batman Vs. Superman movie in development around 2001/2002. A script for this project was written by Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind, The Dark Tower) for director Wolfgang Petersen (Troy, Outbreak, Air Force One).

Colin Ferrell was going to play Batman in the film and Jude Law was going to take on the role of Superman. During a recent interview with Collider, Goldsman shared their take on the story, and it was going to be super dark. Much darker than what Snyder gave us! Goldsman reveals:

“I wrote on […] this version of Batman v Superman [around 2001or 2002]— when Colin Farrell was cast as Batman and Jude Law was cast as Superman and Wolfgang Petersen was directing.

"We were in prep and it was the darkest thing you’ve ever seen. It started with Alfred’s funeral and Bruce has fallen in love and renounced being Batman, the Joker kills his wife, and then you discover it was all a lie. Just that the love itself was constructed by the Joker to break [Bruce]. It was a time where you would be able to get these sort of stories together in script form but they couldn’t quite land in the world. Somehow, the expectations of the object — whether they be audience or corporate or directorial — it wasn’t landing quite in the way I think we imagined when we put them on the page.”

Damn! Bruce Wayne was pretty much going to go through one of the most hellish experiences of his life! The writer went on to liken his take on Batman vs. Superman to The World’s Finest Golden Age comics run saying:

“It was really The World’s Finest, in a kind of dark and interesting way. I think it could have been lovely. On the other hand, none of me is sad that Nic Cage’s Superman didn’t get made. So, I guess in that whole period of time, there were wins to be had and losses to be avoided (laughs).”

It’s interesting to learn about projects like this and imagine what could’ve been. This would have been an insane film not only for back in the early 2000s, but for today’s audiences! It’s just one of those takes on these characters that wasn’t meant to be.