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Joss Whedon's Batman -- It Existed!

The alternate film universe must be an incredible place -- a land where George Lucas directed Apocalypse Now, Frank Darabont's Indiana Jones 4 script was made, and Joss Whedon directed Batman Begins. Actually, in that other dimension, Whedon has probably written and directed everything, including enough Firefly to sate our hungry souls.

Whedon told MTV that once upon a time, he pitched a Batman reboot to Warner Bros when Batman Begins was in early development. "It wasn't what they did but the vibe was very similar. Mine was a bit less epic. It was more about the progression of him and it was more in Gotham City. He didn't go to Tibet and meet cool people, but it was very similar in vibe." But most interesting of all was the idea that he didn't plan on using any villains from the comic book canon. "In my version, there was actually a new [villain], it wasn't one of the classics - which is probably why they didn't use it. It was more of a 'Hannibal Lector' type - he was somebody already in Arkham Asylum that Bruce went and sort of studied with. It was a whole thing - I get very emotional about it, I still love the story. Maybe I'll get to do it as a comic one day."

But he's not a sore loser, and like most of the civilized world, Whedon admires what Christopher Nolan has done with the character. "I just love the respect [Nolan has] for the character and the world. I thought Christopher Nolan's done an amazing job of bringing out the comic book, and I see a lot of movies [coughs "HULK"] - sorry, I had a Hulk stuck in my throat - that don't really have the aesthetic or the pathos or really get why the comic book works."

Obviously, I don't wish for a Whedon film to replace Nolan's, but I can't help but think what might have been. Please, Hollywood, give the guy a crack at a big comic property someday!

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