The Old Batman: Year One Concept Art Request

[Binker]

Remember the old (yup), cancelled (thank god) proposed Batman reboot called Batman: Year One? Well, I do. Despite the bad film, it had very good ideal concept art from the costume (keeping the classic style) and the car was kinda neat. Sadly, the links are either dead or just plain gone. Is there anyone out there who has the art or know where to see them, please post them here.

[Retroman]

Still had these saved in an old Batman file....

[Retroman]

Continued....



and the Batmobile...



Here's an article on the latter designs at Toonzone.

[Catman]

I still like all those concept arts. Maybe Darren Aronosky should be given a second chance when Nolan is done.

[Bruce Malone]

Wait i read most of the script for the frank miller year one. Doesn't batman not even wear a costume for the majority of the film?

[batman_1989_]

I think that,with some modifications,Year One would have been much better than Batman Begins IMO.

[akfj]

Originally Posted by batman_1989_

I think that,with some modifications,Year One would have been much better than Batman Begins IMO.

What would you have modified? This is what Aronofsky wanted to do:

Before Christopher Nolan took over, director Darren Aronofsky was attached to make a Batman movie based on the graphic novel "Batman: Year One" and have the author Frank Miller write the screenplay. By 2003 there was a first draft screenplay with story boards, which are properties of AOL Time Warner. Warner's decision for not producing the film is unknown, but based on the details that have since leaked out, it would probably have to do with the screenplay, which strayed a considerable amount from the source material, making Alfred an African-American mechanic named "Big Al," the Batmobile being a souped-up Lincoln Towncar, and Bruce Wayne being homeless, among other things. This is all detailed in David Hughes' book "Tales from Development Hell."

[Two-Face]

Originally Posted by batman_1989_

I think that,with some modifications,Year One would have been much better than Batman Begins IMO.

Really?



1.He's called "Little Al."

2.Bruce Wayne is NOT rich

If you gonna do Year One to least use the source material. Good thing about this is that Dent is theAssistant DA here and Selina is in it.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:...ne#Adaptations

[Drz]

Originally Posted by Two-Face

Really?



1.He's called "Little Al."

2.Bruce Wayne is NOT rich

If you gonna do Year One to least use the source material. Good thing about this is that Dent is theAssistant DA here and Selina is in it.

You have to remember the script itself was by Frank Miller. He himself did those changes, and wanted to show us how bat**** crazy Bruce Wayne actually is. I always find those aspects very interesting, but yah the movies really do a good job portraying Batman as a true hero instead of a damn maniac.

[batman_1989_]

Originally Posted by Two-Face

Really?



1.He's called "Little Al."

2.Bruce Wayne is NOT rich

If you gonna do Year One to least use the source material. Good thing about this is that Dent is theAssistant DA here and Selina is in it.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:...ne#Adaptations

1.We can live with an Afro-American Alfred,don't you think?
2.In the end,Bruce goes to live in Wayne Manor.

[akfj]

Originally Posted by batman_1989_

1.We can live with an Afro-American Alfred,don't you think?
2.In the end,Bruce goes to live in Wayne Manor.

Ignoring the change of his race, what they were doing was changing him from a British family butler to an American junkyard mechanic. The latter doesn't describe Alfred, at least in my opinion. I don't think fans would have appreciated the change in his character, but I may be wrong.

[Happy Jack]

I don't think Miller's script would have worked as a film, but I could see it as an elseworlds comic.

[ImWithTeamConan]

I like the all black one with the silver bat across the chest.

Wouldn't have minded Aronofsky as a director but no to Miller as writer. Movie would've turned out like ASBAR.

[akfj]

Originally Posted by ImWithTeamConan

I like the all black one with the silver bat across the chest.

It kind of looks like the Batman Beyond costume.

[IBRAH08]

Originally Posted by akfj

What would you have modified? This is what Aronofsky wanted to do:

Before Christopher Nolan took over, director Darren Aronofsky was attached to make a Batman movie based on the graphic novel "Batman: Year One" and have the author Frank Miller write the screenplay. By 2003 there was a first draft screenplay with story boards, which are properties of AOL Time Warner. Warner's decision for not producing the film is unknown, but based on the details that have since leaked out, it would probably have to do with the screenplay, which strayed a considerable amount from the source material, making Alfred an African-American mechanic named "Big Al," the Batmobile being a souped-up Lincoln Towncar, and Bruce Wayne being homeless, among other things. This is all detailed in David Hughes' book "Tales from Development Hell."

Frank Miller had just lost his damn mind, hasn't he?

[Call Me Darkman]

Originally Posted by Two-Face

Really?

1.He's called "Little Al."

2.Bruce Wayne is NOT rich

If you gonna do Year One to least use the source material. Good thing about this is that Dent is theAssistant DA here and Selina is in it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:...ne#Adaptations

Originally Posted by batman_1989_

1.We can live with an Afro-American Alfred,don't you think?
2.In the end,Bruce goes to live in Wayne Manor.

Yeah. Bruce Wayne's origin was changed but the ending indicated that the sequels would feature the Wayne that we all know and love. So, in the long run, it may not have been that big of a deal.

[Two-Face]

Originally Posted by batman_1989_

1.We can live with an Afro-American Alfred,don't you think?
2.In the end,Bruce goes to live in Wayne Manor.

I wasn't talking about his race. So you prefer something nothing to do with comic counterpart.

Again he starts has NOT rich.

[theMan-Bat]

Originally Posted by Drz

You have to remember the script itself was by Frank Miller. He himself did those changes, and wanted to show us how bat**** crazy Bruce Wayne actually is. I always find those aspects very interesting, but yah the movies really do a good job portraying Batman as a true hero instead of a damn maniac.

Originally Posted by IBRAH08

Frank Miller had just lost his damn mind, hasn't he?

No, actually, that was all Darren Aronofsky's ideas. A poor Batman who lives above a garage and was raised in the garage by a black ghetto mechanic called Little Al and the Batmobile being a rusty old black Lincoln with a bus engine in it were Darren Aronofsky's ideas. Darren Aronofsky's concept was a Taxi Driver meets The French Connection style hard R-rated Batman set in the 1970s. Frank Miller said "I'm the lighter one of the team and I'm not used to that."
Frank Miller also said "Darren and I had a blast on YEAR ONE but developed many a friendly difference. Mine lived in the subway and revealed Wayne Manor to Selina in time for a big climax with the Joker. Just to name a couple of the differences. We both submitted separate drafts but the whole works went south when Darren left as director and Warner cleaned house."
http://www.moebiusgraphics.com/phpBB...php?f=2&t=1534
Miller and Aronofsky were both doing different versions of Batman's origin. Neither of them were trying to do completely faithful adaptions of the Year One comic. The difference is Miller was embellishing his Year One by adding more of Catwoman, and the Penguin and the Joker, Batman moving temporary into the underground subway system below Gotham as the first Batcave with Catwoman, which Batman references to in All-Star Batman #10. While Aronofsky was doing his own version.
Here's the Year One script by Frank Miller in a horribly misspelled review which bashes the script for Gordon cheating on his wife with Sarah Essen, which is from the Year One comic.
http://www.aintitcool.com/?q=node/9819
Miller's version also includes some of Aronofsky's influence. Aronofsky wanted a black Alfred talking in urban slang, and the director has the power. Miller likely knew Warner would demand that Alfred be the old white Englishmen he's always been. And Aronofsky wanted the film set in the '70s because Aronofsky wanted to give the film a feel similar to French Connection and Taxi Driver.
Miller said "Ideas pour out of him. In many ways I think I'm the lighter one of the team and I'm not used to that. I can't really talk about what's in the movie, though because I think Warner Brothers would have somebody beat me up. And asking a screenwriter what the movie's going to be like is like asking a doorman whether a building is going to be condemned."
Aronofsky said "I was never planning to direct Year One. I was more interested in writing a screenplay with Frank Miller on Batman. My pitch was always very realistic. I wasn't interested in fantasy I was interested in the psychology of a real man dressing in a disguise to pay out real vengeance. The batmobile was a souped up Lincoln continental with a bus engine. It was technical and rusty and extremely violent. They would have never let us have violence."
http://www.deadprogrammer.com/catego...rren-aronofsky
Miller disagrees with such a realistic Batman. On the documentary Legends of the Dark Knight History of Batman Miller said "People are attempting to bring a superficial reality to superheroes which is rather stupid. They work best as the flamboyant fantasies they are. I mean, these are characters that are broad and big."
Aronofsky said, "It was a hard R-rated Batman. What I pitched them was Travis Bickle meets The French Connection - a real guy running around fighting crime. No super-powers, no villains, just corruption. For the Batmobile I had him taking a bus engine and sticking it in a black Lincoln. Real low-tech geek stuff."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/apr/27/1
Aronofsky also said, "I never really wanted to make a Batman film, it was a kind of bait and switch strategy. I was working on Requiem for a Dream and I got a phone call that Warner Bros wanted to talk about Batman. At the time I had this idea for a film called The Fountain which I knew was gonna be this big movie and I was thinking, 'Is Warners really gonna give me $80 million to make a film about love and death after I come off a heroin movie?' So my theory was if I can write this Batman film and they could perceive me as a writer for it."
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/EIFF-...One-13673.html

[returntovoid]

Originally Posted by Retroman

I hated the Darren Aronofsky script (it's a relief that it didn't happen) but I got to admit, that Batsuit except with different utility belt, gloves and boots would have been the best movie Batsuit. The cowl reminds me of the 1939 Bill Finger/Bob Kane Batman.

[TruerToTheCore]

Let's be honest, the Batman movie suits to this day do not look frightening at all. These concept arts do! They really do. In a dark alley that would freak me out.

[ImWithTeamConan]

I change my mind, I'm glad Aronofsky didn't do it.

[Retroman]

WETA were actually going to create the costumes for the film before the plug was pulled according to Latino Review and AICN.

I remember way back when Darren Aronofsky was going to direct BATMAN: YEAR ONE I bumped into him at Weta (I was there for my first visit on RINGS). He was getting the grand tour and talking to them about creating Batman's new costume then.

I remember that back when Darren Arronofsky was directing Batman: Year One he was madly excited about the suit WETA was making for that movie!

Originally Posted by Catman

I still like all those concept arts. Maybe Darren Aronosky should be given a second chance when Nolan is done.

Yes, he would be a good choice to direct a Batman movie in the future but he'd need to ditch some of the crazy ideas he and Miller came up with.

Originally Posted by Happy Jack

I don't think Miller's script would have worked as a film, but I could see it as an elseworlds comic.

As an elseworlds comic? Why not!

BTW the costume concepts were originally posted on the SHH! mainpage years ago (but no longer available since revamping of the site) and were done by a very talented artist called David Williams who actually posts on these boards.

Here are some more concepts and logo work i had saved which originated from Draxhall Jump Entertainment and SHH!.

[ImWithTeamConan]

I like the two on the top right Batman designs and both Selina designs. Selina kinda looks like a Jim Lee drawing.

[IBRAH08]

@man bat: My bad I guess I got it backwards, and that's hilarious about the criticism for Gordon cheating on his wife. Darren Aronofsky just made it on my list of directors I have a grudge against.

[CrimsonMist]

I always found it a little odd that none of the concept art reflects the nature of the script. Alot of the costume designs are really techy.

However, I LOVED the Year One script. Batman on that kind of gritty and dirty level is something not seen on screen yet. I'd really like to see a 70's style crime drama Batman film without the 100 million dollar budget and extravagant special effects. Something low-key. A straight adaptation of the comic would probably be ideal, as it doesn't entirely shed the superheroics, which regardless of the realistic nature of Batman, still needs to be there. It was really cool seeing Batman get beat up, cut up, shot. It was especially cool knowing that they abandoned entirely the idea of a rubber suit.