There is little doubt that Joaquin Phoenix turned in an amazing performance in Joker but there was a time when he almost portrayed the Joker's nemesis. Darren Aronofsky has confirmed that he wanted the Gladiator actor to play his version of Batman in his planned Dark Knight movie.
Aronofsky recently spoke to Collider about his plans for the Batman film that never came to be. Interestingly, one of the reasons why it never happened was because he had wanted to cast an unexpected actor as the Caped Crusader.
"The studio wanted Freddie Prinze Jr and I wanted Joaquin Phoenix," Aronofsky said. "I remember thinking, ‘Uh oh, we're making two different films here.' That's a true story. It was a different time. The Batman I wrote was definitely a way different type of take than they ended up making."
Aronofsky's Batman movie was supposed to be a follow-up to the infamous Batman & Robin and the filmmaker had wanted to deliver a completely different version of Bruce Wayne. Sadly, all the creative differences led to Aronofsky's project being abandoned. On a lighter note, we later got Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy and Phoenix went on to portray Arthur Fleck in Todd Phillips's film. That also means we won't have to compare Robert Pattinson's new version of the Caped Crusader to Phoenix.
Would you have wanted Phoenix to play Batman in a film directed by the same man who came up with Requiem For A Dream? Sound off in the comments below.
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