Batman: DarKnight (Screenplay)

Batman: DarKnight was written for Warner Bros. as the proposed fifth film in the Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher series. After being in development at the studio for two years, it was passed over in favor of several other Batman films that did not come to fruition until finally Batman Begins was produced.

Now you have the chance to read the screenplay that has garnered internet fame and which IFC listed as one of the seven best unproduced Batman screenplays. This is a what if story—what if there had been one more film that returned the series to the dark, serious tone of those that starred Michael Keaton.

In this story, Bruce Wayne must come out of retirement as the Caped Crusader to investigate sightings of a man-sized bat terrorizing Gotham City. Meanwhile, Dick Grayson has gone away to college, only to tangle with one of his professors, Jonathan Crane, who experiments with a fear toxin that results in Dick being locked up in Arkham Asylum. Crane soon reveals his alter-ego, the Scarecrow—a man who cannot feel pain and is a mass of scar tissue, but gets pleasure out of sensing fear from others. However, he is being stalked by a creature he helped create and is out for revenge, Man-bat.