Bruce Wayne (proposed series)
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Bruce Wayne was a planned but unmade television series to focus on the teenage and young adulthood years of Batman. The idea was conceived by screenwriter Tim McCanlies.
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[edit] Plot
The script opens up with narration from Alfred Pennyworth in the present day that he has kept track of his "employers" formative years. It cuts back in time to a teenage Bruce Wayne waking up from a nightmare in a London drunk tank; where he was put after beating up some crooks. Alfred shows up to pay his bail and ushers him onto a plane to take him back to Gotham City. During the flight home, Bruce has another nightmare about his parents' murder and confesses his uneasiness about returning to Gotham after traveling for nearly four years. The board of Wayne Enterprises wants him to turn his rights of the company over to them, and he will receive a portion of their current stock in exchange.
After returning to Wayne Manor and remembering his youth, Bruce (along with a reluctant Alfred) has an urge to go to the spot of his parents' deaths- Crime Alley. However, they are accosted by a gang of street hoodlums, but he defeats them with relative ease; thanks to intense martial arts training. As they take them to the police station to give their story, they find that none of the cops, including Arnold Flass, are interested in this, but an elementary school girl named Barbara Gordon recommends taking it to her uncle, Sergeant Jim Gordon. When he meets him, Bruce recognizes him as the officer who comforted him after the night of the Waynes' murder. They talk about the crime rate in Gotham and the future of Wayne Industries, which Bruce wants nothing to do with. Before leaving, he is warned by a cautious Gordon about CEO Charles Palantine, the man who has run the company since Thomas Wayne's death.
Later, Bruce and Alfred meet with Palantine, who tries to persuade him that business is not what he wants in life, and that signing over the company is for the best. When Alfred makes it clear not to sell out his father's legacy, Bruce states he will merely consider doing it, but he is then distracted by a former board member and friend of his father, Lucius Fox, who also advises him not to do so. Realizing that Palantine will inherit the company if he dies before his forthcoming 18th birthday, Bruce decides he needs legal counsel, and he turns to Harvey Dent, a former acquaintaince. They arrive at Dent's home where he is holding a masquerade ball, and it is here that Bruce is tempted by an exotic young woman in a tiger costume named Selina Kyle. The uncomfortable tension between them is broken up by Harvey's beautiful sister Susan, a sophomore high school student with whom Bruce is immediately smitten. Just then, Alfred informs him that Gordon requests his presecence down at Wayne Chemicals, where toxic waste was dumped years before, but there have been bodies recently discovered. Following his departure, Bruce meets up with Gordon inside an access hatch, who did not call him there but was told to meet there as well, and they see the hatch close down on them with water rushing in. Without exposing his gymnatic abilities, the young Wayne finds an emergency exit and guides Gordon (who did not witness his acrobatic skills) along with him.
Upon their escape, they go visit Lucius and his elderly mother, Billie, and they plan on investigating the Wayne Chemicals files, since Lucius' father died years before under strange circumstances. Harvey phones Bruce and warns him to stay alive until he turns 18, or else the board will inherit Wayne Enterprises. After a tense discussion, he changes his mind and pleads with the young billionaire to give in and turn over the company. Then, while driving back home, Alfred and Bruce are nearly shot off the road by two Sedans. Taking refuge at the Gotham City Youth Shelter, they discover Susan, as well as young Barbara, work at the place, and Bruce tries to explain his current state of affairs to her. Suddenly, Gordon calls him about the latest shipment of waste is going down tonight, but he warns him to stay away at all costs. Seeing his chance to find things out, Bruce goes anyway to the chemical plant, along with a nervous Alfred; while trying to keep one foot ahead of Officers Gordon, Flass, and a skinny rookie named Bullock.
A shootout with some mobsters sent by an unknown boss and the police ensues, and Bruce tries to help the cops out with his karate, albeit in an unrevealing manner. After the thugs are defeated, the cops arrest them, while Bruce and Alfred slip away to the police station. It turns out that instead of chemicals, the crooks were in the middle of a drug trafficking operation, but they are willing to give information in exchange for a plea bargain. Just as Gordon and his men celebrate their victory, it is revealed that the leader of the thugs has been strangled in his holding cell. Arrving back at Wayne Manor at midnight, Bruce is greeted by a number of his friends at a surprise birthday party. Since he is now of age, he legally owns Wayne Enterprises as company owner and major stockholder. Palantine shows up and sees that the teenaged Wayne has made up his mind about his father's legacy and offers to be his mentor in the days to come. As the story ends, Bruce gives a speech in which he confesses he knows he has to do something he hasn't quite figured out, but he intends to stay in Gotham for the time being.
A group photo is taken of the party, and the narrative focuses back to the present-day Alfred, who says "And so it begins...."
[edit] Background
In 1999, roughly a year after seeing the script he wrote for The Iron Giant get released, McCanlies pitched a JFK Jr. type show revolving around an American icon much like that of Prince William: a drama revolving around the teenage years of Bruce Wayne, the future Batman. Tollin/Robbins Productions bought the rights to produce the series, and HBO began negotiating about possible broadcasting rights.
Since the series did not actually get into pre-production or casting, it is unknown who would have been starred on the show. However, Shawn Ashmore, who later went on to play Bobby Drake in X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand, was heavily rumored to be in negotiations about playing Bruce, as well as Trevor Fehrman of Clerks II fame. A then-unknown Michael Rosenbaum was also considered to play the role of Harvey Dent. David Krumholtz, a current TV actor of Numb3rs, was said to be rumored for Jim Gordon.[1] Even though Warner Bros.' TV division liked the concept of a "Young Wayne" series, the movie division wanted to focus on getting the film franchise back on track. It was Joel Schumacher, director of the infamous box-office flop Batman & Robin, who pitched the idea for a serious Batman origin story.
Eventually, in September 2000, Darren Aronofsky signed on to direct a film adaption of Frank Miller's Batman: Year One,[2] supposedly with Aaron Eckhart (who would later go on to play Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight) as Jim Gordon, and several actors, including Ben Affleck, Brendan Fraser, Josh Hartnett, and a young Christian Bale for the part of Batman.[3] Needless to say, this meant that the idea for Bruce Wayne to become a series was shelved. Due to creative differences and Aronofsky's gritty The French Connection-like script, Year One was cancelled in 2001 before any real production began. Nearly two years later, Christopher Nolan and David Goyer signed with actor Christian Bale to start filming the project in late 2003, and the end result was Batman Begins. However, McCanlies' concept for a young pre-superhero series did get retooled into a pre-Superman show: Smallville.
[edit] Planned run
Bruce Wayne was designed to run five to six seasons, as Bruce goes from an immature 17-year old to a serious young man. While taking place within Gotham, it would also focus on his travels into China, Korea, France and other parts of the world learning defense attacks, criminology, detective skills, and manhunting. He would have tried to join the police force and enroll in the FBI, but he would come to understand that he cannot pursue justice within "the system." At somepoint towards the end of the run, he discovers a large cavern underneath Wayne Manor, and he recruits Lucius Fox and several imported Polish workers in blacked-out buses to begin construction on his new headquarters. Via Wayne Enterprises, he and Lucius would start testing several vehicles and gadgets, which would later become part of his future arsenal in his war on crime.
While he would not meet them during the show, some subplots would shed some light on several future Batman mythos characters. These would have included a failed comedian named Jack Napier described as "Sam Kinison, only angrier," psychology professor Jonathan Crane, pre-med intern Harley Quinn, disturbed con man Edward Nygma, and a young farmboy from Kansas named Clark Kent. Scripted as being slightly older, Kent would come into contact with Bruce while the latter is at a WayneTech conference in Smallville. Bruce later meets up with him prior to becoming Batman and learns he is Superman.
Other story arcs would revolve around Jim Gordon's struggle with police corruption, crooked businessmen trying to take over Wayne Enterprises, and Bruce coming into conflict with the local mafia, led by Rupert Thorne and Carmine Falcone. Harvey would have storylines ranging from his abusive father, troubled childhood, and his struggles through law school. One of the script's scenes has Dent trying to be on both sides between his meek, abused mother and his drunken, volatile father during a fight; a subtle hint to his later development as Two-Face.
[edit] Smallville connection
Although Bruce Wayne did not get off the ground, McCanlies' concept of a young pre-superhero series did get off the ground in the form of Smallville. Coincidentally, Michael Rosenbaum, who was considered for Dent, did get cast on the show as Lex Luthor, and lead-considered Shawn Ashmore even guest-starred as a villain. The creators and executive producers, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, longed for years to get the teenaged Bruce Wayne on the show as a recurring character ever since Season One. They soon realized due to the "Batman Begins|Bat-Embargo", it would be impossible to get him on the air with a film franchise.
The planned story arc was for Bruce to appear in the second and third seasons as a recurring rival for Lionel Luthor and Luthorcorp's expansion. As with the Bruce Wayne pilot, he was designed to be two years younger than Clark and fall for Lana Lang. When it proved impossible to do so, Adam Knight (played by Ian Somerhalder) was used as a brief love interest for Lana in his place. His name is an inside joke: it is a subtle reference to Adam West (the 1960s Batman) and "The Dark Knight". Despite this, another young vigilante Batman-type character, Oliver Queen, was used in Bruce's place instead.
Although Bruce Wayne never made it onto Smallville, several references to Batman are hinted at during the series. These include the guest appearance of Andrea "Angel of Vengeance" Rojas being a vigilante who seeks revenge, a schoolmate of Lex saying that "I gotta get back to Gotham", Oliver Queen being a costumed hero who is often at odds with Clark, and even a scene where Lana meets an informant in Gotham, which is created via archive footage of the city from Batman Begins.
For his contribution to getting Smallville made, McCanlies still receives royalties for every episode produced and aired.
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- The name of Wayne Enterprises' CEO, Charles Palantine, is the name of the senator that Robert De Niro's Travis Bickle tries to assassinate in Taxi Driver. It is also somewhat similar to that of the Emperor Palpatine of the Star Wars universe. The character of a slimy CEO was later included in Batman Begins played by Rutger Hauer.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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