With last yearâs Joker, Joaquin Phoenix took a character made iconic many times over and reinvented it once again in an indelible â and Oscar-winning â new shape.
Alas, Aronofskyâs Bat-vision wasnât to be â but in the new issue of Empire he opened up about his plans at the time, and how far they differed from those of the studio.
As it turns out, Warner Bros fancied a much more clean-cut Bruce Wayne.
âThe studio wanted Freddie Prinze Jr and I wanted Joaquin Phoenix,â he recalls.
âI remember thinking, 'Uh oh, we're making two different films here.'
The Batman I wrote was definitely a way different type of take than they ended up making.â.
Apparently even the hard-boiled writer was shocked by how dark Aronofsky was looking to go, with Batman veering into torture territory. »