While Christopher Nolan’s BATMAN BEGINS may have been influenced heavily by Frank Miller’s Year One arc, it seems plans were afoot long before 2005 to adapt the story to screen. Michael Keaton, who portrayed Bruce Wayne in both of Tim Burton’s BATMAN films in 1989 and 1992, revealed in a podcast that he originally wanted to go ahead with a third film detailing the Dark Knight’s origins:
‘You look at where he [Nolan] went, which is exactly what I wanted to do when I was having meetings about the third one. I said you want to see how this guy started. We’ve got a chance here to fix whatever we kind of maybe went off. This could be brilliant.’
The actor, who admitted he has yet to see Nolan’s DARK KNIGHT trilogy in its entirety, originally became interested in the character through another of Frank Miller’s graphic novels, The Dark Knight Returns. He and Burton shared similar visions of the caped crusader, as Keaton also stated on the WTF With Marc Maron podcast:
‘I was familiar with the TV show, but I didn’t know the whole comic, the pulpy part of it… [the character] is ridiculously depressed. He’s a vigilante. He’s got this issue…’
Batman: Year One was later set for adaptation by BLACK SWAN director Darren Aronofsky, but the project was abandoned when Warner Bros. decided to make good on their promises for a BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN film. Of course, that didn’t happen either, but Nolan’s DARK KNIGHT trilogy wasn’t too awful an alternative, was it?
Though of course, in place of Keaton’s proposed origin film, we got BATMAN FOREVER and BATMAN & ROBIN. Maybe Warner should have listened to him after all. But if they had, we probably wouldn’t have gotten BATMAN BEGINS at all. Do you think old Mickey K could have done a better job at the origin story? Let us know in the comments below!
Source: comicbook.com
