Long before Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman, another screenwriter, producer, and director was going to take his stab at this storyline. Akiva Goldsman worked on Batman films such as Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. Having had experience in the Batman realm, he looked to bring this titans battle to the big screen, but the project was scrapped.
Batman vs Superman was not just Snyder’s baby. The film had been circling around Warner Bros. in the early 2000s. This film was meant to be directed by Wolfgang Petersen and Colin Farrell was to play Bruce Wayne and Jude Law would be Superman. Kevin Walker had written the initial draft, but walked away from the project. That’s when Goldsman stepped in to take over writing duties. Now, we have the details of that script:
“I wrote on […] this version of Batman v Superman [around 2001 or 2002]— when Colin Farrell was cast as Batman and Jude Law was cast as Superman and Wolfgang Petersen was directing —we were in prep and it was the darkest thing you’ve ever seen. It started with Alfred’s funeral and Bruce has fallen in love and renounced being Batman, the Joker kills his wife, and then you discover it was all a lie. Just that the love itself was constructed by the Joker to break [Bruce]. It was a time where you would be able to get these sort of stories together in script form but they couldn’t quite land in the world. Somehow, the expectations of the object — whether they be audience or corporate or directorial — it wasn’t landing quite in the way I think we imagined when we put them on the page.”
He added:
“It was really The World’s Finest, in a kind of dark and interesting way. I think it could have been lovely. On the other hand, none of me is sad that Nic Cage’s Superman didn’t get made. So, I guess in that whole period of time, there were wins to be had and losses to be avoided (laughs).”
Colin Farrell may not have the chance to play Batman, but he is the Penguin in Matt Reeves’ upcoming film, The Batman. The early 2000s was an interesting time and hearing Farrell as Bats and Law as Superman is something to wrap your head around. But, it might have been something we would have ended up praising for years afterward. Would you have liked to see Goldsman’s Batman vs Superman?
Source: Collider
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