Snyder’s take on the Man of Steel has been criticised for its darkness, but a decade earlier we could’ve seen something far darker according to screenwriter, producer, and director Akiva Goldsman.
Goldsman recently spoke with Collider and revealed what could have been in terms of the scrapped “Batman vs. Superman” film that was in the works back at Warner Bros. Pictures in the early 2000s with “Air Force One” and “The Perfect Storm ” helmer Wolfgang Petersen attached to direct.
“Se7en” scribe Andrew Kevin Walker wrote the initial draft for the feature with Goldsman taking over then. The project promised to be the first live-action feature to have the two heroes coming to blows:
“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.”
Goldsman went on to solid success with “Fringe,” Will Smith’s “I, Robot” and “I Am Legend,” and the Robert Langdon films and says the abandoned BvS project “was really The World’s Finest, in a kind of dark and interesting way” and he remains proud of it. He also adds “none of me is sad that Nic Cage’s Superman didn’t get made,” referring to the Tim Burton-directed “Superman Lives” project that was in the works before the Petersen one.
Goldsman of course infamously penned both “Batman Forever” and “Batman & Robin,” the latter famously considered one of the worst superhero films ever made. More recently Goldsman has been a key executive producer on both “Titans” and the two current “Star Trek” shows. Asked to reflect on his earlier “Batman” work he says:
“You know, it’s complicated because I think, in a funny way, this show that Geoff Johns and I created, Titans, is kind of my apology tour for Batman & Robin because it was heady and extraordinary. I’m a deep, deep, deep, deep old comic book fan and so, the opportunity to get to them and to play in them was amazing. And, as you said, it was a different time; things that did last, you really wish had [lasted].”
The talk comes as The Aspiring Kryptonian reported recently that “Kick Ass” and “Kingsman” director Matthew Vaughn suggested to comic artist Mark Millar at one point that he thought “Daredevil” star Charlie Cox would make for a great ‘Golden Age’ Superman.
As for those involved in the scrapped “Batman vs. Superman,” Petersen went on to helm “Troy,” while Farrell and Law continued successful careers. The studio meanwhile then got to work on Chris Nolan’s acclaimed and influential “Batman Begins” and Bryan Singer’s mixed reviewed “Superman Returns”.
The rest is history.
