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Batman - Year One (200?)
Plot: This movie will follow the story of Bruce Wayne as a rookie superhero.
News:
28 November, 2001
According to a report on Screenwriter's Utopia, this projected has been "accepted" by Warner Bros. Work is to begin promptly with an eye towards a 2003 release. Warners brass asked Aronofsky for some design concepts on Gotham City, the Joker, Catwoman, Batman and the Batmobile.
I'd classify this as serious rumor material for the moment folks. It just smells a bit fishy to me. While you're thinking that over, hop on over to Wizard's website where they have a couple of discarded designs for the Batmobile.
What do you think? Talk about it on the Forums
12 October, 2001
A big report on Coming Soon! goes over the status of Batman at Warner Bros. and the news is not good. For the Batman: Year One project, all versions of the script have been rejected. This has forced repeated clean sheet rewrites. As a result there has been absolutely no discussion of casting at this point. So you can ignore all the casting rumors to date.
What do you think? Talk about it on the Forums
13 June, 2001
Comics2Film is reporting that Warner Bros. is looking at a 2003 release date for the movie. This would appear to be an aggressive schedule since there is no script as of yet and Aronofsky is moving forward on directing a sci-fi movie in the near future.
What do you think? Talk about it on the Forums
15 November, 2000
Got theories on who will play Bruce Wayne in this movie? Throw 'em out. Darren Aronofsky, the writer and likely director hasn't gotten that far yet. "It's really premature. Honestly, I haven't thought about it," says Aronofsky in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times.
He's putting a lot more thought into this script than is typical for a superhero movie. "I want to introduce some Freudian psychology and answer the question: What does it take for a real man to put on tights and fight crime. I promise that this time Batman will be a complex character with issues," he says. The director of Pi and Requiem for a Dream. is going to start writing the script this week.
"It's not the teen Batman. But we do tell the origins story," Aronofsky divulges. "We learn how Batman saw his parents killed in front of him by a gunman and then trained himself to fight crime."
13 October, 2000
Darren Aronofsky talked to Salon about the project. According to him, things are not quite as cut and dried as some would think. "I am going to write Batman [V] with Frank Miller. I'm also writing a science-fiction story, and that's going to be set up in a studio really soon. We'll see which one happens first, because it's not like I'm definitely doing Batman, which everyone seems to think." Asked to clarify that statement, Aronofsky responds, "Well, I'm going to write it and we'll see what happens. We'll see if they let me make the script that I'm interested in."
He was asked what about the character he was drawn to. "I just think it's a great story that's been told two different ways in the last 10 years, both interesting, but not the way I would tell it. I think it's an amazing story that touches very deep in the American consciousness. There's something about vengeance and justice that are really deep issues for Americans. And vigilantism. But to tell you the truth, I haven't even started on it. We've been talking about doing this for a long time. It seems like it's finally happening, but it's a long road."
12 October, 2000
Frank Miller spoke to Comic Shop News about writing the script for a Batman - Year One movie. "I expect to have a lot of fun with Year One," he said. "From the get go, I see many things that need changing -- but ultimately even if the movie gets made, mine will only be one of many voices calling the shots. I'll bring my very best efforts to the script. I won't write a single line I don't believe in."
Miller warns fans against getting to excited so early on. "The movie business is wild. There's so much money involved, and so many people, that anything can happen. Maybe Darren and I will set the world on fire. Maybe our script will wind up sitting next to all the other could-have-beens that litter the shelves of studio execs. I'm certain we can do a good job -- but anybody who isn't financing his own movie himself is foolish to predict his fate -- or his involvement in it."
He is pleased at working with Darren Aronofsky on it. "Darren and I had a lot of fun working together on the Ronin movie project," Miller said. "We make a good team, I think... Darren in particular wanted to make Year One."
21 September, 2000
Maybe Warner Bros. finally understands what went wrong with the Batman movie franchise. Variety announced today that Warner Bros. has officially signed Darren Aronofsky (Pi) to write and direct the fifth Batman movie. Aronofsky will team up with Frank Miller on the screenplay. Miller wrote the graphic novel Batman Year One that will serve as the basis for the movie.
This means a serious change in direction for the floundering franchise. This installment will look at Bruce Wayne's first year as Batman. He is by no means the supremely confidant superhero we've come to know. He is essentially a rookie at this, making big mistakes and doubting himself. Also featured is James Gordon, not the commissioner but instead just a lieutenant who has to deal with this weird costumed vigilante.
Aronofsky takes a huge step up in the film world by taking on this project. His first film Pi was a fascinating science fiction thriller filmed on a microscopic budget. It focused on that thin line between genius and madness. Apparently Warner Bros. production head Lorenzo di Bonaventura was a big fan of Aronofsky's second film Requiem. This helped get him the job over more established candidates like Bryan Singer (X-Men, The Usual Suspects).
11 September, 2000
Bad news if you were anxiously awaiting a sequel to Men in Black or the fifth Batman movie. According to Entertainment Weekly, the serious threat of an actors and writers strike next year has quite possibly put these two projects on the shelf for the time being.
Despite recent rumblings that the two projects might be finally moving forward after years of stalled development, it seems unlikely that these will begin production for the forseeable future. With Men in Black 2, Sony knew it would be impossible to get the movie in gear soon enough to avoid possibly lengthy delays in production should a strike occur. They hope that the project can be put into motion after the issue with the Screen Actors Guild and Writer's Guild of America is resolved.
The general feeling in Hollywood right now is that it isn't worth wasting time on projects that could suffer long delays due to the pending strike. Projects like Jumanji 2 and James Cameron's next film, possibly True Lies 2, are going to be temporarily shelved. If a production cannot begin by March first they won't be started at all. If a strike occured it would begin with a WGA walkout on May 1, 2001.
This doesn't necessarily mean these projects are dead. It does mean they could face a very long wait to get started though.
28 January, 2000
Hopefully the next Batman movie won't actually suck. However with a weak track record over the last two films, I'm going to be wary and cover it here until it proves it deserves a promotion to Movie News. Anyway, on to the news...
According to The Hollywood Reporter, director Darren Aronofsky (Pi) is in talks with producer Lorenzo DiBonaventura to take the reins of the fifth Batman movie. Warner Bros. appears to want to take the franchise back to its dark roots. Until the plan for the movie is cemented, the proposed Bruce Wayne TV series is being put on hold. That series would have been set in the time before Bruce Wayne actually put on the batsuit and became Batman. It would have covered the development of Wayne into the bat.
The good news here is that Warner Bros. wants to get away from the direction of the last two Batman flicks. They are looking at a director that made a well received movie on a tiny budget. That would indicate he would be putting the story ahead of the pyrotechnics.
19 April, 1999
No they aren't going to team these two up. According to Ain't It Cool News Michael Uslan (producer on all 4 Batman movies) gave a talk at New Jersey City University where he mentioned that there will be another Batman movie in 2000 or 2001. It would be smaller in scale and similar to the first one in tone. If that's true it might lift it out of the bad movie realm. Uslan also owns the rights to Swamp Thing and says that Warner Bros. has budgetted $28M for a new movie. No word as to when this might be out.
16 February, 2000
Joel Schumacher hasn't given up on the barely breathing Batman franchise yet. In an interview with the Calgary Sun, he says he would like to do another Batman movie, but only if it would deal with Bruce Wayne as a young man just becoming Batman. He would want to cast a complete unknown in the part. He also went on to say that George Clooney shouldn't blame himself for wrecking the franchise. Schumacher said he himself should shoulder most of the responsibility.
21 January, 2000
Just a quick follow up on the false Mel Gibson as the next Batman rumor. In an interview with the Toronto Sun, Gibson says the whole thing was a ridiculous rumor. He advises being wary of any news about him from a London source. "I once read in a London paper that I was seeing a therapist because of my obsession with tits. I mean, I am obsessed with tits, but it's certainly nothing I would ever seek help for." Well put.
16 January, 2000
Just a quick follow up. As expected the Donner/Gibson/Nicholson rumor is false.
11 January, 2000
The Daily Mail (British tabloid) has reported that Richard Donner is in discussions to direct, Mel Gibson has been approached to be Batman and Jack Nicholson has been asked to reprise his role as The Joker. George Clooney has said that he has no interest in doing another Batman movie. This sounds pretty shaky at best, but considering the staggering badness of Batman and Robin, I couldn't skip this one.
