Clint Eastwood Would’ve Been Batman If The Hughes Bros. Had Made THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS

If think of Batman/Bruce Wayne, which actor runs through you mind, Bale? Kilmer? How bout Clint Eastwood? THE BOOK OF ELI opens this weekend and The Hughes Bros. revealed, via MTV, that they were offered the Batman franchise by WB, specifically to tackle the adaptation of Frank Miller‘s famous graphic novel THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS which chronicles the Caped Crusader in his later, aging years…

“Three different Batman projects were presented to us over the years,”
“The first time, it was ‘The Dark Knight [Returns].’ I remember how dark the comic book was. Batman was old. He had to rely more on his tools and other sh–, and he was a decrepit, 60- or 70-year-old man in this comic book.”
“I remember saying to them back then, ‘We want to do this, and you should get somebody like Clint Eastwood to do it,’”

When filmmakers say ‘o I was offered this’ or ‘o I was offered that’, how often do you think they’re telling the truth?
But Clint Eastwood as an old Bruce Wayne wouldn’t be a bad idea. I’ve always thought a movie version of that animated series Batman Beyond would rock socks off and Eastwood would be perfect as the white haired, cane-holding Wayne, mentoring Terry McGinnis.
But hey now, I wouldn’t call Eastwood ‘decrepit’ that Dirty Harry can still kick your ass.
But The Hughes Bros. who a decade ago adapted the graphic novel From Hell, said they’re glad they didn’t get to do THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and that the studio was glad as well because doing that movie would mean the end of the franchise.

“Basically, what we were telling them it was the death of their franchise, ”
“Looking back now, we definitely would’ve killed that franchise.”
“Nolan’s done a phenomenal job with Batman — especially the first one — and that’s what we would’ve done if we were interested, but we were never going to do a Batman or Superman movie. I know we couldn’t do that.”

Watchmen director Zack Snyder also dreamt of directing an adaptation of THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS but is also uncertain the studio is wiling to take the risk.
I say give more years for Nolan’s Batman films and then talk about bringing THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS to the big screen in the next decade or so.

Here’s the official synopsis of the graphic novel..
“This masterpiece of modern comics storytelling brings to vivid life a dark world and an even darker man. Together with inker Klaus Janson and colorist Lynn Varley, writer/artist Frank Miller completely reinvents the legend of Batman in his saga of a near-future Gotham City gone to rot, ten years after the Dark Knight’s retirement.
Crime runs rampant in the streets, and the man who was Batman is still tortured by the memories of his parents’ murders. As civil society crumbles around him, Bruce Wayne’s long-suppressed vigilante side finally breaks free of its self-imposed shackles.
The Dark Knight returns in a blaze of fury, taking on a whole new generation of criminals and matching their level of violence. He is soon joined by this generation’s Robin — a girl named Carrie Kelley, who proves to be just as invaluable as her predecessors,
But can Batman and Robin deal with the threat posed by their deadliest enemies, after years of incarceration have made them into perfect psychopaths? And more important, can anyone survive the coming fallout of an undeclared war between the superpowers — or a clash of what were once the world’s greatest superheroes?”