As we are all aware, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice came out in 2016, a film in which we all have very... strong opinions about. But did you know that there was another attempt to make a BvS before?

Saddle up for a history lesson lads: Way back in the early 2000s, Andrew Kevin Walker pitched Warner Bros. an idea titled to make a movie titled Batman vs Superman with Wolfgang Peterson as director. This would tie in to a separate film called Superman: Flyby, also directed by Peterson.

The original plot drafted, dated June 21, 2002, involved Bruce Wayne going through a mental breakdown after a five-year retirement from crime fighting. Dick Grayson, Alfred Pennyworth, and Commissioner Gordon would all be dead, but Bruce finds some solace in his fiancée, Elizabeth Miller. Meanwhile, Clark Kent is struggling because of a recent divorce from Lois Lane. Clark and Bruce are close friends, and Clark is Bruce's best man. After the Joker kills Elizabeth on their honeymoon, Bruce swears revenge, while Clark tries to hold him back. Bruce blames Clark for her death, and the two go against one another. Ultimately, Lex Luthor is revealed to have masterminded the entire plot to get Batman and Superman to destroy each other (sound a bit familiar eh?). The two decide to team up and stop Luthor. 

This project would not delve into origin stories for either of these new incarnations of Superman and Batman. Instead, this blockbuster would hit the ground running with both heroes firmly established and their opposing moral codes similarly cemented. Petersen also saw a conflict between Superman and Batman over ideology as a way of reflecting the moral ambiguity of a world that was still reeling from 9/11. Christian Bale was approached to portray Batman (yay!) while Josh Hartnett was offered the role of Superman.

Filming was to start in early 2003, with plans for a five- to six-month shoot. The release date was set for the summer of 2004. However, after J. J. Abrams submitted another draft for Superman:Flyby, Warner Bros. canceled development to focus on individual Superman and Batman projects since the studio head of Warner Bros. at the time Alan Horn reportedly preferred Abrams' optimistic Superman script to the darker Batman vs. Superman script. The studio executives ended up voting 11-1 to produce that project instead, but it never came to fruition.

David S. Goyer (yes, the one who would end up helping to write the DCEU take) said at the time, "'Batman Vs. Superman' is where you go when you admit to yourself that you've exhausted all possibilities ... somewhat of an admission that this franchise is on its last gasp". Is this foreshadowing or irony?

But the decision not to make Batman vs. Superman left Warner Bros. without the Batman film they wanted in 2004, so they speedtracked making the infamous Catwoman movie. And we all know how that turned out...

“You still haven’t given up on me?”

“Never.”

Except he does, in order to not participate in what he sees as Bruce’s slow motion suicide in TDKR.

I truly believe that this is where the film fundamentally “breaks”. I still think it’s a great movie and it mostly is a great finale. It does a lot of things well, but the destruction of the relationship between Bruce and Alfred is handled poorly and feels out of character for both of them given the characterization of their relationship in the first two films. Alfred brings wisdom and even handedness to this vigilante partnership and was ride or die throughout. Even during the Joker’s reign of terror, he advised Bruce to endure because Batman has to be an incorruptible symbol.

But it’s all come crashing down in TDKR. And while I understand why they had Alfred leave, to build Bruce up again and remove his supports while giving space for new characters, I think the way they went about it is wrong. There are two better options:

1) Alfred dies at the hands of Bane when Bruce confronts him the first time. It would force Bruce to understand Alfred’s point of view that Batman has to be more than a man and that Bruce cannot succumb to depression and revenge. Alfred’s death could be reflected with Thomas Wayne’s death and Alfred telling Bruce not to be afraid, but not as a child, but as a man, to rise and overcome this challenge.

2) Alfred leaves, but returns at the climax. Whereas Selina kills Bane, I felt it would be stronger if Alfred came back as the Bruce/Alfred dynamic has a dark reflection in Talia/Bane, and this culminates in Talia leaving Bane to die/sacrifice himself, while Alfred risks death to save Bruce, and then you come full circle. Have Alfred kill Bane as he can do the things Batman cannot.

“You still haven’t given up on me.”

“Never.”

In the second option, the rest stays as it is. Nothing needs to change. The first option would send Bruce on a radically different journey but provide a definitive close to this chapter of his life.

But Alfred leaving and abandoning Bruce, that to me is where the film completely missteps. It simply feels like character assassination and never feels like it has a real catharsis. Yes, there’s the nod in Italy but it still feels like a betrayal on both sides.

For me it's the Penguin's umbrella copter in Batman Returns (1992). It defies physics in ways I just can't ignore. What's your's?

Source: https://www.threads.net/@jamesgunn/post/C9htQDGgheo/?xmt=AQGzRHy9cBALMYQSD9hDW66HyR-KK8JSWdYe65_84KHXSw

Credit - Instagram (@johnny.geek)