The Book of Eli sibling writers-directors Allen and Albert Hughes are no strangers to comic book adaptations; their last movie being 2001's adaptation of Alan Moore's From Hell. Albert told MTV that after their first movie, they were offered a chance to direct an adaptation of Frank Miller's classic graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns.
Three different Batman projects were presented to us over the years. The first time, it was The Dark Knight [Returns]. I remember how dark the comic book was. Batman was old. He had to rely more on his tools and other s**t, and he was a decrepit, 60- or 70-year-old man in this comic book. I remember saying to them back then, "We want to do this, and you should get somebody like Clint Eastwood to do it." Basically, what we were telling them it was the death of their franchise. Looking back now, we definitely would'vekilled that franchise.
Allen claims that the project was never something they would have considered.
It was a different regime at the time at Warner Brothers, and they did offer it to us a couple times, but we were never going to do that. [Christopher] Nolan's done a phenomenal job with Batman — especially the first one — and that's what we would've done if we were interested, but we were never going to do a Batman or Superman movie. I know we couldn't do that.
Albert agreed, adding that after their first movie the brothers were "offered everything, but we're not capable of delivering a corporate project like that."
Posted 01.13.10 by Ryan