"For every movie that gets made there are a hundred that never happen. And for every version of a movie you see in theaters, there are a dozen other versions that never made it past the script stage." Thus begins an article that Devin Faraci has written at movie site CHUD, chronicling the rise and fall of versions of movies you probably didn't even know existed. Among the theoretical films discussed? A Star Trek IV starring Eddie Murphy, a Planet of the Apes film directed by controversial helmer Oliver Stone, and the tantalizing possibility of an ultra-realistic Batman directed by the visionary Darren Aronofsky:
Aronofsky wasn't interested in making anything that resembled a Batman film that had come before. He also wasn't interested in hewing close to Miller's original comics. This film saw Bruce Wayne wandering the streets after the murder of his parents; he's taken in by an auto mechanic named Big Al (Aronofsky's version of Alfred). Bruce grows up a borderline psychotic who begins taking violent vengeance on street thugs. He turns an abandoned subway station below Big Al's auto shop into his version of the Batcave. He puts a bus engine in a black Lincoln Continental as his version of the Batmobile. Over the course of the story he assembles the elements of the costume and persona of Batman (or The Bat-Man, as he's called).
This Batman is the reality of what a guy in a costume beating up criminals would be like - insane, overdramatic, barely likable.
Who among us hasn't seen a movie and wondered what might have been? Have any similar thoughts? Think that some of these movies would have been better as the alternate versions described here? Feel free to discuss in the comments below.
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Not only a very well written story about batman being lured into the asylum by the joker and allmost losing his own mind, but also one of the most beautifull "comics" I own..
in 1993 I wrote a kid's movie (action adventure with cgi) that was part fantasy and involved the 'saving' of the Monarch butterflies"... it was tech-forward at the time, tech toys, the kids made cd-rom presentation for the school (pre-internet days)
everyone who read it said it felt like they could 'see' the whole thing (and these are H-wood'ers with experience in script reading) and my Mom STILL cannot believe it didn't get made...
the problems are multitude - you need to have the RIGHT literary agent read and like it AND be ready to act on it (and if you are not published that can be VERY tough to find), and the right actors' agents looking for a vehicle, and the right studio ready to go that way... etc. and if it isn't coordinated by a bolt of luck/lightning, then it goes into the vault with TONS of others...
the system is too huge - if it's not the rights to a popular book, or someone with power is not attached, forget it - and there are LOTS of stories of H-wood big hitters not getting anywhere with good projects...
there is more luck to it than talent
I could tweak my script toward more present day technology, and make the kids more cynical, and it would still work... but they say you don't flog a dead horse...
Some Prog Rock albums could be made into short films, since a lot of them wore concept albums that told a story.