Back in the early '00s, director Darren Aronofsky, who is famous for directing Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, Noah, Mother!, and other notable projects was in early discussion to direct a movie for DC Comics universe.
While speaking with Empire, Darren Aronofksy talked about a project with DC Comics. "The studio wanted Freddie Prinze Jr and I wanted Joaquin Phoenix," Darren said. "I remember thinking, 'Uh oh, we're making two different films here.' That's a true story. It was a different time. The Batman I wrote was definitely a way different type of take than they ended up making."
It was Christopher Nolan who then got the project from the studio and he did an amazing job by having a totally different perspective when it comes to superheroes and villains. Nolans' Batman trilogy movie is being considered as one of the finest portrayals of Batman and other DC Comics characters.
Nonetheless, it would have been amazing to see how Darren Aronofsky would have played around the DC Comics character. More importantly, if he would have cast Joaquin Phoenix, then it would be a project worth talking about.
When it comes to Phoenix, he eventually became Joker — the Clown Prince of Gotham — fluffing one of the lines from Nolan's Batman trilogy — you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
Batman in Joaquin Phoenix's Joker 2:
After the enormous success of Todd Phillips' Joker movie starring Joaquin Phoenix, there were several speculations about the Joker 2 movie.
Both Phoenix and Phillips have talked about Joker 2 movie but as of now, there is not much to tell as Warner Bros. is already busy with Matt Reeves' The Batman movie featuring Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne aka Batman.
That being said, we already saw a young Bruce Wayne in Joaquin Phoenix's Joker movie and if the director and actor will go ahead with Joker 2 movie then we might get to see Bruce living a lonely life after the death of his parents.