Batman: The Bruce Wayne Years TV Series

[MWats]

http://www.kryptonsite.com/brucewayne/script.htm
http://www.kryptonsite.com/brucewayne/script2.htm
http://www.kryptonsite.com/brucewayne/script3.htm
http://www.kryptonsite.com/brucewayne/script4.htm

The above were scripts for a supposed television show that was going to air on The WB in 2001 (what The CW was called before 2006) but was nixed. Apparently the Warner Brothers Film Division wanted to focus on rebuilding the Batman movie franchise after the Batman and Robin, which was considered a failure for the most part by the industry, and they didn't want a Batman film and series to go side by side.

The series was going to focus on Bruce Wayne before he became Batman. The series' first episode would start days before his 18th birthday and end with him becoming Batman. It would feature people that would be pivotal in his future, including Vicki Vale and Selina Kyle (Catwoman) as love interests, Jack Napier (The Joker) as a grumpy comedian, Harvey Dent (Two-Face) as a good friend and coincidentally also a lawyer, Jim Gordon (Commisioner Gordon) as a friend of Bruce's in the law force, Gordon's 13-year old daughter (Batgirl) who loves Bruce and has somewhat of a crush on him, and even a weird kid from Smallville, Kansas named Clark Kent. Bruce would be depicted as somewhat of a celebrity and according to the series bible, he would have been looked at by teenage girls like NSync was. He would be a hothead with Alfred as a father figure.

Ultimately, the series was passed on because as I said earlier, the movie division didn't want a film franchise and a series going at the same time. Some elements of the series made it to Batman Begins, and the series eventually developed into Smallville, which is basically the same premise with the series depicting the early years of Superman instead of Batman. I didn't know about this series and found it interesting the way it ended up. I would have found this series more interesting that Smallville, but then again if we got this we probably wouldn't have gotten The Dark Knight and rejuvenation of Batman movie franchise. Would you have preferred this over Smallville and Batman Begins?

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

Personally, i feel that Smallville is an incredibly stupid idea and have never bothered to give it the time of day.

'Follow the adventures of Clark Kent as he tries to get to grips with life as a teenaged boy in America combined with other the wordly powers bestowed upon him by his Kryptonian heritage, leading up to him ultimately becoming Superman, The Man of Steel.......... oh but by the way we're going to make out that he met and knew everyone in DC comics before then as well."

Fuckin' idiots. Ya know, i could accept the whole 'I've always known Lex Luthor, but he doesn't know i'm Superman' bullshit, but when i heard that he started fighting guys like Bizarro, and meeting members of the Justice League before he decides to become Superman, i knew i'd made the right decision to never watch that show.

Now, you're telling me they considered doing it with Batman?

I read the script for the first episode, not too bad to be perfectly honest. They establish that he'd been trained in Martial Arts for several years, and would apparently even go into why a job as a policeman or FBI agent wouldn't work out/satisfy Bruce, and hell, they even kept Alfred's persona as 'International Man of Mystery/Butler' instead of just simply 'Butler', while apparently giving the show some much needed comic relief through his dialogue, just like he did in Batman TAS.

But then of course, there's the other little things about the script that would have obviously made some people angry.

Barbara Gordon is not slightly younger than Bruce, she's significantly younger than Bruce. When he's 30, she's supposed to be 15, not when he's 18, she's 14 like they describe.

Same applies with Lucius Fox. He's not Bruce's age, he's supposed to be in his 50's when Bruce becomes The Bat.

It's cool that they decided to put Bullock and Montoya in, but why the hell did they change Renee Montoya, the hispanic lesbian of the GCPD who goes on to become the 2nd Question, into a Richard Montoya? The point of that was what? Because there were too many female characters already perhaps? Well here's a thought, scrap giving Harvey Dent a fuckin' sister then!

You've already introduced Vicky Vale and Selina Kyle, and hell there's even reference to Harley Quinn in that proposal (another ******ed idea, considering Joker and Bats are supposed to fight for years before Harley comes along), so why did they think inventing a new character out of nowhere was such a good idea? So he could have a love interest? A) Like i said, they introduced 2 actual Batman characters who could have filled that role without having to invent a new one, and B) It's fucking Batman! Does he really need a love interest, or do people watch Batman to see a scary dude with countless cool gadgets beat the living hell out of some of the most twisted villains ever conceived in fiction?

I mean, did anybody else really feel it was necessary to invent Rachel Dawes for Nolan's films? I didn't. If they'd completely removed that character nothing would have been any different about it would it?

Plus, Jack Napier, the down on his luck comedian..... If this was to be used as more than a one shot appearance before he becomes the Joker, then the writers are even more stupid. There is absolutely, positively no need to establish any kind of relationship between a young Bruce Wayne and a pre-accident Joker. There's no point, it would serve no purpose except for the audience to know he'll become the Joker.

Well, duh, we all know that, i don't need a failed comic to appear using the same name they made up out of nowhere from Burton's first movie. I mean, we all know that 'Batman' and Batman TAS (once, and even then they showed another episode stating that Napier was one of his many aliases) are the only sources to refer to Joker as 'Jack Napier' right? So why did these guys decide to do it as well?

Anyway, fan boy ranting aside, I do believe that this probably wouldn't have gotten over well, unless they followed the same route as Smallville, and by that i mean, fill it with pretty boy actors and actresses and hope their looks are enough to disguise just how poor the writing is. Following on from that, it seems highly unlikely that they'd then reboot the Batman franchise all over again, and do Batman Begins or Dark Knight.

I mean, Smallville started before 'Superman Returns' right? And they didn't reboot it then, they simply carried on from the pile of shit that was left over from the first 4 movies. 'Yes, he still has a child, moving on.....' It's only now that they've decided to start again.

So the 5th Batman movie would probably have picked up where Batman and Robin left off, probably with a far better script, actors, set design, etc, etc, but following on from the same story threads that the last 2 ended with, so you'd have had Scarecrow, Hatter, Ra's Al Guhl, Clayface, Killer Croc and the Ventriloquist to use from Bat's primary rogue's gallery, and can you honestly see a blockbuster movie being made with only those villains to work with?

When Guhl and Scarecrow are the only decent villains left to use, they'd have struggled, big time.

So all in all, no i'm glad they didn't bother with this, because it would have probably have been as bad as Smalleville (imo), and we wouldn't have had the last 2 movies which imo, have been very succesful in sparking new life into the Batman franchise outside of the comic book industry.

It was bad enough that they tried to do 'Bird's of Prey' and episodes were actually made. I mean, have you seen how that show started? With Babs in a flashback, getting shot by the Joker, KNOWING FULL WELL SHE'S BATGIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And not only that, they had some dude dressed in what looked like a cheep ass Joker outfit from a kiddie's costume shop, and they had to get Mark Hamill to dub the voice!

 

[Dean Winchester]

SV worked because Clark has super powers and could fight crimed even befored he was Superman. But hows they did it was all wrong and lame. Should of did it way better then what they actually had done. I mean he fought half of his rouge gallery and he not even Superman yet. Its a crappy alternatived version of Clark Kent/Superman.