Rumor: Darren Aronofsky targeted for next Batman movie; 'Justice League' date confirmed?

Not long after he made his breakthrough debut with Pi, Darren Aronofsky was approached by Warner Bros. with a very different sort of project. They wanted him to do a Batman film, and Aronofsky set it up to be a gritty, realistic take based on the excellent Batman: Year One comic. It unfortunately never came to be, but it's possible we could have had a Christopher Nolan-style Batman film before Nolan ever entered the picture with Batman Begins. You can read about the Bat-film that never was in David Hughes' book, Tales from Development Hell, but if rumors are true we may have another chance to see Aronofsky's approach to the Caped Crusader.

A source within DC Entertainment has informed CosmicBookNews that after Aronofsky wraps up Noah, Warner Bros. wants him to jump into a Batman film which will follow-up Justice League. Titled The Batman, it will be based on the original Arkham Asylum video game and have the Dark Knight trapped in the prison with a bunch of villains he put in there.

As for Justice League, they say the release date is currently set for June 19th 2015, but many expect it will get bumped to the following year. That would then push The Batman until 2017. David Goyer, who had a significant part to play in crafting Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy, is said to be consulting on or rewriting Will Beal's Justice League script.

Take all of this with the usual allowance of salt until we get some sort of confirmation. Aronofsky would seem to be a natural choice for the job, especially given his past and present associations with the studio. Plus he's shown a desire to do superhero movies recently, having been forced to drop out of directing The Wolverine. We'll see how all of this shakes out, so just file it away for now.