WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN: The Dark Knight Saga

Batman Begins (2005)

>Ashton Kutcher was WB's top choice to play Batman before Christopher Nolan was hired to direct the movie.

>In early drafts, Harvey Dent was Bruce Wayne's childhood friend who becomes an Assistant District Attorney who collaborates with Batman. When Rachel Dawes was added to the script, Dent was removed and Rachel was given his role.

>Henry Cavill, Cillian Murphy, Jake Gyllenhall, Hugh Dancy, Billy Crudup, Eion Bailey, David Boreanaz, Joshua Jackson and Heath Ledger auditioned for Batman. Jackson was reportedly Christopher Nolan's favored choice for the role, but WB rejected him as Katie Holmes had already been cast as Rachel and Jackson's casting would drawn unwanted attention to the fact they were both in DAWSON'S CREEK, which WB feared would undermine the movie's credibility. Ultimately, Christian Bale was cast.

>Amy Adams auditioned for Rachel before Katie Holmes was cast by WB's demand. Claire Danes and Reese Witherspoon were also considered for the role.

>Christopher Eccleston and Ewan McGregor were considered for the Scarecrow before Cillian Murphy was cast, having impressed Nolan with his audition for Batman.

>Gary Oldman was approached for Ra's Al Ghul, but preferred to play James Gordon. Guy Pearce was in talks for the role, but once Bale was cast, Nolan felt Pearce was too close to Bale's age to convincingly play a seasoned mentor, and Liam Neeson was then cast.

>Chris Cooper was approached for James Gordon, but declined, leading to Gary Oldman being cast.

>Anthony Hopkins was considered for Alfred Pennyworth before Michael Caine was cast.

>Laurence Fishburne was considered for Lucius Fox before Morgan Freeman was cast.

The Dark Knight (2008)

>Harvey Dent's disfigurement would originally happen in the third act, and his transformation into Two-Face would occur in a potential sequel, but the concept was scrapped in favor of completing Dent's storyline in the movie.

>In early drafts, there's a subplot about Batman investigating Harvey Dent's background and learning that Dent's family was brutally murdered, but it was scrapped for being inconsequential.

>In early drafts, Rachel is revealed to a distant relative of the Grayson family, but the idea was scrapped as being inconsequential. Nolan also didn't want fans to believe Robin would be added to the franchise.

>Early drafts reportedly featured Oswald Cobblebot as a Russian weapons dealer and one of the leaders of Gotham's organized crime, and Roman Sionis as Bruce's corporate rival.

>Rachel McAdams was offered the role of Rachel Dawes after Katie Holmes dropped out due to scheduling conflicts, but declined. Isla Fisher and Emily Blunt also auditioned for Maggie Gyllenhall was cast.

>Hugh Jackman was offered the role of Harvey Dent, but couldn't commit due to scheduling conflicts. Jude Law, Josh Lucas, Liev Schreiber and Mark Ruffalo were also considered before Aaron Eckhart was cast.

>Paul Bettany, Guy Pearce, Adrien Brody, Sean Penn, Hugo Weaving, Johnny Depp, Vincent Cassel, Crispin Glover and Lachy Hulme auditioned for the role of the Joker before Heath Ledger was cast. Bettany was reportedly WB's choice for the role and Nolan's backup should Ledger be unavailable.

>Philip Seymour Hoffman and Karl Urban were linked to the role of Oswald Cobbleplot and Roman Sionis before the characters were allegedly scrapped.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

>Heath Ledger was expected to return as Joker before his death.

>WB wanted the Riddler as the main villain, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, but director Christopher Nolan believed he was too similar to the Joker.

>Nolan and his brother Jonathan Nolan wrote the first draft of the script, which was 400 pages long and had to be severely condensed in order to fit into one movie. Most cuts were done to the second act, with Bruce Wayne trapped in the Pit and Gotham City under siege from Bane.

>In early drafts, several minor characters had larger roles that were reduced in further revisions, including Barsad, Bane's right-hand man; Jen, Selina Kyle's friend and accomplice; Ross, John Blake's partner; and Jones, the leader of the Special Forces team deployed to Gotham.

>In early drafts, Captain Peter Foley is killed by Talia after being run over by a Tumbler. The scene was filmed, but deemed too violent for the studio, and reworked so Foley is fatally shot during the final battle.

>Rachel Weisz was considered for Talia Al Ghul before Marion Cottilard was cast.

>Ryan Gosling was considered for John Blake before Joseph Gordon-Levitt was cast.

>Zoe Kravitz was considered for Jen before Juno Temple was cast.

>Adam Rodriguez was considered for Jones before Daniel Sunjata was cast.

only way fo TDK to be improved would be if Rachel was actually attractive.

You always do a good job w/ these threads, OP, interesting stuff. Related:

>Josh Hartnett has spoken out about his regret over turning down the lead role in Christopher Nolan’s franchise-starting 2005 blockbuster, Batman Begins.

>In an interview with Playboy, the 36-year-old actor said the decision had a detrimental effect on his career.

>“I’ve definitely said no to some of the wrong people,” he said. “I said no because I was tired and wanted to spend more time with my friends and family. That’s frowned upon in this industry. People don’t like being told no. I don’t like it. I learned my lesson when Christopher Nolan and I talked about Batman. I decided it wasn’t for me. Then he didn’t want to put me in The Prestige. They not only hired their Batman for it, they also hired my girlfriend [Scarlett Johansson] at the time.”

>That’s when I realized relationships were formed in the fire of that first Batman film and I should have been part of the relationship with this guy Nolan, who I felt was incredibly cool and very talented. I was so focused on not being pigeonholed and so scared of being considered only one thing as an actor. I should have thought, Well, then, work harder, man. Watching Christian Bale go on to do so many other things has been just awesome. I mean, he’s been able to overcome that. Why couldn’t I see that at the time?

>Laurence Fishburne was considered for Lucius Fox before Morgan Freeman was cast.

Imagine being a black guy and the role goes to Morgan Freeman every time.

>Harvey could have been friends with Bruce, making his fall more powerful
>Rachel could have been played by a consistent, actually good looking actress

Why

this shit better be true because i actually read it all

>could've had the goose
fuck this world

did anyone else see that pewdipie was baneposting in one of his recent videos

>Joshua Jackson
would have made a damn fine young bruce

>did anyone else see that pewdipie was baneposting in one of his recent videos
No, I didn't see that because I'm not an 11 year old, friendless autist

>WB wanted the Riddler as the main villain, played by Leonardo DiCaprio
at least we dodged that bullet.

>In early drafts, Harvey Dent was Bruce Wayne's childhood friend who becomes an Assistant District Attorney who collaborates with Batman.
That's good. Honestly all the alternate casting would have been really good. Wonder what the script was like

>Harvey Dent's disfigurement would originally happen in the third act, and his transformation into Two-Face would occur in a potential sequel, but the concept was scrapped in favor of completing Dent's storyline in the movie.
It always felt like they rushed it. I remember after it came out people were speculating that Two-Face would have a big role in the third film, because he didn't really do much.

>In early drafts, there's a subplot about Batman investigating Harvey Dent's background and learning that Dent's family was brutally murdered, but it was scrapped for being inconsequential.
Good.

>In early drafts, Rachel is revealed to a distant relative of the Grayson family, but the idea was scrapped as being inconsequential.
Good.

>>Early drafts reportedly featured Oswald Cobblebot as a Russian weapons dealer and one of the leaders of Gotham's organized crime
Would have been bad. I wonder how Nolan would ahve shoehorned in his nickname

Again all the alternate casting is on point

>Heath Ledger was expected to return as Joker before his death.
;_;

>WB wanted the Riddler as the main villain, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, but director Christopher Nolan believed he was too similar to the Joker.
Nolan was right.

>Most cuts were done to the second act, with Bruce Wayne trapped in the Pit and Gotham City under siege from Bane.
Definitely shows, the Pit stuff I didn't really miss but it definitely felt like they skipped a lot of Gotham under Bane's rule, it transitions from him taking over to Gordon leading the resistance months later very quickly. Would ahve liked to have seen more of him and /or Catwoman in Gotham

>>In early drafts, several minor characters had larger roles that were reduced in further revisions, including Barsad, Bane's right-hand man; Jen, Selina Kyle's friend and accomplice; Ross, John Blake's partner; and Jones, the leader of the Special Forces team deployed to Gotham.
Could have been cool.

>Katie Holmes
>not good-looking

>Ashton Kutcher was WB's top choice to play Batman

>Ewan MacGregor as Scarecrow

I HAVE THE HIGH GROUND, BATMANAKIN!

so it would've been a trainwreck no matter what.

Ledger really shouldn't have died

>he says on a Polynesian goat breeding message board

I think you've got the Barsad part wrong. It was the henchman played by Christopher Judge that was going to fill that role but he was too big put up next to Bane so they reduced his part and gave some of his shit to Barsad instead

at this point it seems WB is determined to do everything they can to make every movie into a train wreck trains and it takes intense talent, ability, and credibility to make something that isn't garbage.

>>Rachel McAdams was offered the role of Rachel Dawes after Katie Holmes dropped out due to scheduling conflicts, but declined. Isla Fisher and Emily Blunt also auditioned for Maggie Gyllenhall was cast.
what the fuck is this shit

Man, I hope Josh Hartnett will make a comeback. Seems like he's a decent guy.

>Ashton Kutcher was WB's top choice to play Batman
DUDE, WERE IS SHE!

Fpbp

>too big

He always seemed important, it figures he got scrapped

Fuck Nolans and WB for scrapping actually interesting things and keeping in stupid shit like the bomb plot and the Talia twist

>Hugo Weaving and Crispin Glover Jokers

Any chance we will ever see the audition tapes?

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