Joaquin Phoenix was initially set to play Batman after Clooney's version failed: Know more

Actor Joaquin Phoenix celebrates his 46th birthday today, i.e October 28, 2020. While his role as Joker has received widespre critical acclaim, actor was actually on-board to play Batman in one of early iterations of character. On Joaquin Phoenix's birthday, re about time when he almost played caped cruser Batman. 

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When Joaquin Phoenix was on board to play Batman

Actor Joaquin Phoenix, in Joker, delivered one of his career-best performances, however, back when George Clooney's iteration of Batman h failed to create Box Office magic, Warner Bros was looking to reboot franchise. Director Darren Arofsky was brought on-board to direct a new Batman franchise which can break away from failure of Batman & Robin. film was supposed to be an on-screen aptation of Frank Miller's Batman: Year One vel and director h zeroed down Joaquin Phoenix to play leing part of Bruce Wayne/Batman. 

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While speaking in an interview with Empire, director h expressed that while he wanted to bring in Joaquin Phoenix on-board for role, studios wished to bring in Freddie Prinze Jr. That is when director realised that he and studios are focusing on two different versions of film altoger. Darren h also revealed that Batman film he wrote was completely different than version WB brought to screen later on. 

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Warner Bros later turned to Christopher lan to heline Batman franchise which was loved by millions of fans. However, Arofsky h actually gotten Frank Miller to write script of film himself. director h expressed that version of Batman which was put out before his version h watered character down to some extent. Thus, he wished to reinvent it for bigger screen. However, same did t happen and years later, Joaquin Phoenix ended up picking up mantle of Joker. latest iteration of Batman which is being helmed by Matt Reeves is also expected to be inspired by Batman: Year One comic book storyline. 

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