As the director completed post-production on Batman & Robin in spring 1997, the studio enlisted screenwriter Mark Protosevich, who had recently written a draft of I Am Legend for Warner Bros. He met with Schumacher, who pitched his vision for pushing the franchise in a more serious direction. Schumacher envisioned a psychologically complex take on the character, something he says he wanted to do with his Batman Forever follow-up before getting pushback from the studio and ultimately making Batman & Robin.

Scarecrow and Harley Quinn were to be the film's chief villains. George Clooney (Batman) and Chris O'Donnell (Robin) would be back, but Alicia Silverstone's Batgirl was not in the script. In what would have been big boon, Jack Nicholson 's Joker was also slated to appear, alongside previous villains in the series.

"It was going to be very dark," says Schumacher. "I remember going to the set of Face/Off and asking Nic Cage to play the Scarecrow."

After meeting with Schumacher, Protosevich locked himself away to slave over the script. What emerged was a roughly 150-page first draft for what he called Batman Unchained (often referred to as Batman Triumphant online, though Protosevich is not sure where that name came from).The script dealt with Batman learning to conquer fear and to confront the demons of his past.

Its two villains had each hated a different aspect of Batman. The brilliant (and satanic) Prof. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow had a personal vendetta against Bruce Wayne, while Harley Quinn despised Bruce's alter ego.

Harley, a toymaker whom Protosevich describes as "sadistic in a mischievous, fun sense," learns that her true father was The Joker. This sets her on a path of vengeance against Batman for taking him away in the 1989 film. Eventually, Crane learns Batman's secret identity and teams up with Harley to drive him insane and have him sent to Arkham Asylum.

The script culminates with an ambitious, all-star sequence that would have seen a hallucinating Batman face the demons of his past, where he is put on trial by the franchise's previous villains.

The studio wanted to enlist cameos from Danny DeVito (The Penguin), Michelle Pfeiffer (Catwoman), Tommy Lee Jones (Two-Face) and Jim Carrey (The Riddler), all leading up to a final confrontation with the man himself: Jack Nicholson's Joker.

"Joel wanted to tie up all of the films. The Tim Burton films and his films, building up to this moment," says Protosevich.

During the movie, a rift forms between Batman and Robin, who comes back during the final battle to help his mentor. After defeating his demons, Bruce travels to Bali, where Protosevich read in real life monks enter a cave full of bats to show they have conquered fear. In the script, Bruce enters the cave as bats swarm around him.

Credits roll.