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See the original image at io9.com —

Joss Whedon's Batman Movie That Never Was

io9.com — The center off all things cult worship, Joss Whedon, opened up to MTV Splash about his Batman pitch to Warner Brothers, pre-Christopher Nolan. "It wasn ’t what they did but the vibe was very similar,” Whedon explained. “Mine was a bit less epic. It was more about the progression of him and it was more in Gotham City." More Batman movies please!

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  • darthsand, on 08/11/2008, -8/+23I would kill to see Joss Whedon's Batman movie that wasn't
    • ksgant, on 08/12/2008, -31/+9I would kill anyone that would attempt to greenlight this hacks meddling with Batman. Joss Whedon has to be...hands down...the most overrated producer/director/writer I've ever seen.

      Thank GOD that cooler heads prevailed and didn't let this loser anywhere NEAR Batman.

      Go ahead, mod me down. You know it's true. Look at Serenity. Everyone clamored for more Firefly. More Firefly! Bring back Firefly! How DARE Fox cancel Firefly! Make a Firefly movie! It will make a bazilliion dollars! Well...guess what? It tanked.

      Joss Whedon and his 12 very vocal fans need to just walk into the "cowboys in space" sunset and never be heard from again.
      • TexTurboesq, on 08/12/2008, -1/+9Do you need a hug?
      • GreatSunJester, on 08/12/2008, -1/+4and the reality of it all is: Firefly was cancelled and Whedon had a lot more story to tell. When given the chance, he tried to shove as much of it as possible into the movie, which created a somewhat disjointed production.
        Bottom line... great storylines should never be "cliff notes" editions.
      • Volaitle86, on 08/12/2008, -0/+3Spike will find you sleeping
  • cbergstrom, on 08/12/2008, -5/+35Nathan Fillion as Batman?
    • SnarleyJoe, on 08/12/2008, -6/+11and Robin reworked as a teenage girl with issues, and newly-discovered post-pubescent powers...?
      sounds kinda like Miller's DKR.
    • The2ndAct, on 08/12/2008, -1/+24I always thought Fillion would make a great Indiana Jones. After the travesty that was Indie 4 does anyone mind if Whedon reboots that franchise?
      • petebot, on 08/12/2008, -1/+8Well, considering Fillion was already Han Solo in Firefly, I suppose it wouldn't be too much of a stretch...
      • WriterSD, on 08/12/2008, -0/+1I would *love* to see that! Fillion would be perfect and Whedon could certainly write in the same way as the first three Indiana movies.
    • JeddHampton, on 08/12/2008, -0/+25"Stand back everyone. Nothing here to see. Just imminent danger, in the middle of it me. Yes [Batman] 's here. Ears flowing in the breeze. The day needs my saving expertise!"
    • WhiteSundays, on 08/12/2008, -0/+0heh.. maybe not. But Nathan Fillion as the Riddler ... ? I think he could be a hell of a lot more subtle and entertaining than Jim Carrey.

      Sorry Jim..
  • A11YND, on 08/12/2008, -15/+29I'd kill to not see this movie.

    A new villain seriously? Stick to the over 9,000 villains Batman ALREADY has.
    • BeefBaron, on 08/12/2008, -8/+2Cue "over 9000!!!" comments.
    • coyote1284, on 08/12/2008, -2/+3It doesn't make a bit of difference, guys. The villains are inert.
    • PhoenixAvatar2, on 08/12/2008, -2/+3Yeah, but each has their own baggage. You see the Joker, you expect chaos and sick laughs. You see the Green Goblin, you expect a guy flying around on a scooter throwing bombs.

      Creating your own villian gives you a blank slate to surprise your audience with.
  • thinboyslim, on 08/12/2008, -10/+17Thank ***** for that.
  • JangoFett, on 08/12/2008, -3/+36Are Joss Whedon and Kevin Smith in a race for "The coolest movie that was almost made"?
    • Gerz1219, on 08/12/2008, -0/+5No, but they may be in a race for biggest-waste-of-a-reboot-that-was-never-made. Whedon doesn't have the visual flair behind the camera to pull off a comic book movie and his dialogue is painfully self-conscious and cheeky. And he's never received sole writing credit on a watchable feature film. He's TV talent and he should stick to what he's good at. Thankfully Warner realized this and hired a real talent for their Batman reboot. Nolan's films are superior to anything Whedon would've coughed up.

      And Superman Lives would have been unwatchable trash. It would have been entertaining in a way that Superman Returns wasn't, mostly because Smith's script had Superman actually using his powers. But everything else about it was bad, unless you wanted to see a Superman movie in which Brainiac rips off his diabolical plot from Mr. Burns, and Superman doesn't fly and wears a robot suit instead of his costume for the entire second and third acts.
  • Andrwmorph, on 08/12/2008, -8/+3I am the bat.
  • Pulch, on 08/12/2008, -2/+49Love Joss, love Firefly, love Dr Horrible. That being said, thank God Nolan's Batman is the one we know today.
    • Peck3277, on 08/12/2008, -6/+8Firefly ftw
    • MOJIRA, on 08/12/2008, -3/+3You spelled Xenu wrong.
    • WriterSD, on 08/12/2008, -0/+3Ditto. I adore Joss Whedon's work, but it wouldn't be right for Batman. The Dark Knight was perfect as is. But as a commenter said earlier, Whedon writing a new Indiana Jones would be a vast improvement.
  • gnarkill726, on 08/12/2008, -11/+22Thank God Joss Whedon never got his mitts on Bruce Wayne and turned him into an oh-so-clever sarcastic douchebag like all the characters on Buffy, Firefly, etc.
    • dmbchris, on 08/12/2008, -8/+9Amen- I like Wayne as a regular douchebag, not a Whedon-scale one. Am I the only one that lumps in Whedon stuff with Family guy? Just have some manatees push random clever phrases from one end of the pool to the other, insert a few character quirks, add a goth chick, and you've got a hit!
      • alexforcefive, on 08/12/2008, -1/+10Lots of writers have a signature style that you could dismiss as formulaic if you wanted to.

        "oh bob dylan? jeez, pick up a guitar, sing out of tune, add a bit of anti-establishment, and you've got a hit!"
      • brutalentropy, on 08/12/2008, -0/+3@alexforcefive:

        Don't forget the harmonica! ;-)
      • gnarkill726, on 08/12/2008, -1/+1Alexforcefive:

        The difference is that in the case of Whedon, 'style' prevails over anything else. His characters and their sarcasm get in the way of anything approaching good storytelling.
      • alexforcefive, on 08/12/2008, -1/+1We'll have to agree to disagree on that point
  • lodleader, on 08/12/2008, -3/+31No thanks, I'll stick with Chris for my director
  • shauntacular, on 08/12/2008, -8/+3I don't understand why there can't be another Batman movie, I think the competition would be beneficial to all the movie going public.
    • Waiting2awake, on 08/12/2008, -0/+4Competition is good for the consumer, but not so much for the producers.

      Thus......
    • alexforcefive, on 08/12/2008, -0/+4You can't apply market forces to everything, ffs.
  • Ellrick, on 08/12/2008, -14/+14Thank god they didnt give the franchise to that overrated nerd-herder.
    • mlvassallo, on 08/12/2008, -1/+4Nerf herder?
      • OMGWTFROFLMAOx2, on 08/12/2008, -0/+8Who's scruffy lookin'?
      • jjfac, on 08/12/2008, -0/+1Ellrick, I must suggest you leave the Internet now.
    • davewashere, on 08/12/2008, -8/+2Seconded. Thumbs up. Added you as a friend. Getting buried in 3...2...Whedon sucks!!!
  • xtal3, on 08/12/2008, -10/+5Thank god. I don't want pedophilic, OH-SO-RANDOME *****, especially next to Nolan's work.
  • sisko2k5, on 08/12/2008, -5/+3Both of those sound awesome. I thing Joss would have stayed very true to the comics and not strayed into a buffyeqsue sarcasm. More importantly the superman idea sound too cool. Would be nice to see it.
  • hydroplane, on 08/12/2008, -7/+10Its for the betterment of humanity that we forget Superman Returns exists.
    • macbookpromat, on 08/12/2008, -6/+3I think it would be better for humanity if we forgot about Superman movies all together.
      • xtal3, on 08/12/2008, -4/+1Or just Superman in general. 52 was a great comic series because Superman, WW, and Batman all disappeared, and that's the way it should be. Batman should have his own universe, and the former two just suck balls.
      • theonlybradever, on 08/12/2008, -2/+0hurray for people that know nothing about comics!

        idiot.
  • TiCL, on 08/12/2008, -4/+8
  • slaverynin, on 08/12/2008, -2/+4Although it would have been great (still could be in some form), the Nolen movies have just been excellent. Just be happy we aren't sitting through any more Batman and Robins.
  • sindex, on 08/12/2008, -3/+20I'm a huge Joss Whedon fan. I loved Buffy, loved Angel more, loved Firefly even more and Serenity is the best Sci-Fi movie of 2005 (*way* better than Episode III). Dr. Horrible was one of the most perfect things to ever grace the Internet. All that said, I would never trade Nolan's vision of Batman for Whedon's. Whedon writing his story into a comic? Sounds great. I'll stick with Nolan at the helm of the film franchise.
    • Kelmon, on 08/13/2008, -0/+1"*way* better than Episode III"

      Not exactly a high bar to leap over, is it? Limbo would be tougher...
  • scoobycarolan, on 08/12/2008, -6/+4What about the batman movie I wanted to make! Asshats always forget about me.
  • slayerab, on 08/12/2008, -7/+11Dugg for this quote,

    “I thought Christopher Nolan’s done an amazing job of bringing out the comic book, and I see a lot of movies [coughs “HULK”] — sorry, I had a Hulk stuck in my throat — that don’t really have the aesthetic or the pathos or really get why the comic book works.”

    Hulk and all other Marvel movies suck
    • mr0nine2five, on 08/12/2008, -2/+1I liked Iron Man. They did a good job on the suit, and the acting wasn't bad. And I hear that more are on the way. So there is still a chance for the Marvel franchise to knock the socks off of Batman. I'm not saying its GOING to happen, just that it can.
    • coyote1284, on 08/12/2008, -1/+5Just wondering, did you see Ironman?
    • PhoenixAvatar2, on 08/12/2008, -0/+1You've never seen the first two Spidermans? or the first two X-Mens?
  • Yimyack, on 08/12/2008, -1/+3At 400 million bucks so far, safe to say Warner Bros. Studio heads actually made the right choice.

    Dear God, Whedon's version sounded stupid...
    • slayerab, on 08/12/2008, -0/+1They should give him the chance to reboot superman though, I'm tired of the current superman storyline
  • omacadams, on 08/12/2008, -0/+2Doesn't seem fair to Digg a story on i09 that's taken from a different site.
  • 1ofMany, on 08/12/2008, -1/+4"I was going to do something like that too..."

    Please.
  • Slybri, on 08/12/2008, -1/+2Whedon would probably make Batman a 16 year old girl. Maybe he could get Brian Michael Bendis to help write it:

    "Oh my God, I am SO the Batman!"
    "The Batman?"
    "The Batman...totally"
    "The Batman."
  • Depthfunction, on 08/12/2008, -2/+3I like Whedon, but I have a really hard time imagining a Whedon-esque version of Batman making it to the big screen. Whedon talks about pathos with respect to the Hulk movies, but I don't think Whedon would have the right kind of pathos for Batman.

    It is, however, a shame that his Wonder Woman script was not picked up. That movie would have been really interesting.
  • diggitmofo, on 08/12/2008, -2/+3FARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT
  • poploserdigg, on 08/12/2008, -0/+3MTV Splash? Sounds like a new name for their spring break coverage. Or "MTV Attention Whores Showing Their ***** for Tequila Shots"
    • omacadams, on 08/12/2008, -0/+0I think it's Splash Page - it's a comics/movie site.
    • actionscripted, on 08/12/2008, -0/+1If all I had to do to get free booze was to show my ***** -- and if I had ***** -- I'd flash my baby-chokers to everyone.
  • pumping1r0n, on 08/12/2008, -1/+1I don't for one second doubt that Whedon could have created something just as visually and emotionally gripping as the current batman films, but Nolan got their first; and he created something so remarkably engaging, that it surpasses even the most extravagant of expectations.

    I sorta feel bad for Whedon though. It seems like his recent stuff keeps getting canned or cut short in spite of all the potential. I'm a fan of Buffy, more so of Angel, so I really hope Dollhouse gets a few seasons under its belt. Whedon just somehow manages to capture everything about us that makes us human. It's something that can either be joyously gleeful one minute, or painfully gut wrenching the next. Great stuff IMO.
  • Wreckage, on 08/12/2008, -1/+0If only he had done the Superman movie as that one was awful
  • rascilon, on 08/12/2008, -0/+1The only thing missing is a giant mechanical spider!
  • protogenxl, on 08/12/2008, -1/+1"Joss Whedonies
    ( Applause )
    ***** Flavor Of the Month"
    - Triumph The Insult Comic Dog

  • shipwreck58, on 08/12/2008, -3/+3I dont get the hype on this dude. Watched Firefly, couldnt really argue with it being cancelled.
  • 1timeuser, on 08/12/2008, -2/+2I like Joss as much as the next guy but I don't think he would have been a good choice for Batman. GIVE US MORE FIREFLY!
  • Kinsbane, on 08/12/2008, -0/+1Couldn't honestly have been any worse than JJ Abrams' Superman script.
    http://www.aintitcool.com/node/13350
  • audioscience, on 08/12/2008, -1/+2Anyone else think Joss Whedon is a douche?
    • potabai, on 08/13/2008, -0/+0The Internet is vast and wide. There are many who think he's a douche.
  • Kelmon, on 08/13/2008, -0/+1Sod Batman - more Firefly, you bastards!
  •  

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