This month is a big one for Frank Miller in terms of screen adaptations, as Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Marvel's Daredevil Season 2 will be out. Even though he isn't directly involved in either of them, the Warner Bros movie is heavily influenced by his Dark Knight Returns and the Netflix series is set to introduce Elektra, a character he created.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, when asked if he would watch Batman v Superman or Daredevil Season 2, Frank Miller responded in the negative. He first admitted that he didn’t create Batman or Daredevil, so he doesn't have the “right to be possessive”. Then he explained that the problem with him is that once he has worked on a character, it is hard for him to “see any other way” than his way. Miller added:
By and large, most of what they do, I’ll just get grouchy if I see it. So I tend not to look at it, except for a few exceptions.
When asked if he's been paid for the use of Elektra in Daredevil Season 2, Miller said:
No. I don’t know if they quite know I exist. Let’s see if they credit me for creating Elektra.
However, when the interviewer suggested that Marvel should pay him, Frank Miller said that he isn't going to “whine” about that!
Frank Miller talks about his unmade Batman movie!
Many of you might know that Frank Miller had once teamed up with Darren Aronofsky for a Batman movie project. Miller claims that the Black Swan director had a “darker” vision of the Caped Crusader than he did. He stated:
My Batman was too nice for him. We would argue about it, and I’d say, “Batman wouldn’t do that, he wouldn’t torture anybody,” and so on.
However, when they were done with the screenplay, Warner Bros. stepped back from making the movie. According to Frank Miller:
The executive wanted to do a Batman he could take his kids to. And this wasn’t that.
The Batmobile in that movie, according to Miller, was “just a tricked-out car”. The Dark Knight didn't live in Wayne Manor, but he lived a street life to “know what people were going through”. He added:
He built his own Batcave in an abandoned part of the subway. And he created Batman out of whole cloth to fight crime and a corrupt police force.
Would you have wanted to watch a Batman movie similar to the one Frank Miller and Darren Aronofsky wanted to make? Share your thoughts via comments!