Joel Schumacher wanted to make The Dark Knight

Batman & Robin director Joel Schumacher has claimed he wanted to make a Dark Knight style follow-up to the Batman film even Batman says is terrible.

But Warner Brothers liked the Batman & Robin dailies so much (HOW?) they tasked Schumacher with making a fifth film, presumably starring Clooney, entitled Batman Triumphant .

“I was supposed to do a fifth one" Schumacher said. "I was talking to Nic Cage about playing the Scarecrow. I had begged the studio for The Dark Knight but they wanted a family friendly, toyetic thing."

Triumphant would have seen Batman getting gassed by Scarecrow’s fear toxins and having visions of his former foes, including Jack Nicholson’s Joker.

Which, quite frankly, would have been beyond awesome.

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Sam Ashurst is a London-based film maker, journalist, and podcast host. He's the director of Frankenstein's Creature, A Little More Flesh + A Little More Flesh 2, and co-hosts the Arrow Podcast. His words have appeared on HuffPost, MSN, The Independent, Yahoo, Cosmopolitan, and many more, as well as of course for us here at 12DOVE.