Kevin Smith Hints Fox Swiped His Batman Idea For Gotham TV Series

When news first broke about Fox's Gotham TV series back in September 2013, the word was that the show was going to focus on telling the origin story of Commissioner James Gordon. Batman was reportedly not going to be a part of the show. In November 2013, director Kevin Smith and writer Paul Dini discussed an idea for a Batman TV show without Batman that would focus on a young Bruce Wayne. Their idea involved the story of Bruce Wayne at prep school, before he ever puts on the Batman mask. They called their idea "Shadow of the Bat." In January 2013, Fox Entertainment chairman Kevin Reilly told reporters at TCA that their Gotham series would include a young Bruce Wayne. Instead of just being the origin story for James Gordon, the Gotham series was now being described as an origin for Batman as well with the series ending with Bruce Wayne first donning the cape and cowl. On Twitter, several Kevin Smith fans started pointing out the similarities between Smith and Dini's "Shadow of the Bat" idea and the new description for Fox's Gotham series. On his most recent Fatman on Batman podcast, Smith addressed the similarities. After recounting his and Dini's "Shadow of the Bat" idea, Smith said, "Fox has had a show in development for some time called Gotham, and when they announced it, essentially they were like 'Hey, man, this is a show that takes place in Gotham long before the Batman.' So it's Jim Gordon first gets to town. So, you know, you see the origin of super crime or whatever. I don't know if they even said that. But it's all centered on Jim Gordon. It's Jim Gordon's show. Batman wouldn't be in it." "That's what we were told. And that's what they stuck to for a long time," continued Smith. "Now, they just announced Fox's Gotham show in development has been suddenly updated to include… wait for it… while me and Paul call the lawyers… Bruce Wayne age twelve years old. With the series ending when…. wait for it… while we call the other law house… ends when he puts on the cape." Smith added, "I only know this because tons of you tweeted… tons of you… and are still tweeting until this day to say, 'Hey, man, that sounds an awful lot like the show you and Paul Dini came up with in Episodes 51 and 52 of Fatman on Batman. So no word on whether or not we will be reached out to and said 'Hey, you guys want to jump in.' Because I guarantee… I can't guarantee anything because I don't know anything… but Jesus, it's awfully weird that we did those episodes and they marinated for a month and the Internet lit up. There were a lot of tweets. Some people wrote articles about Paul Dini and Kevin Smith's version of 'Shadow of the Bat' sounds cool. So look people listen to Shadow of the Bat… people listen to Fatman on Batman. Perhaps they heard about Shadow of the Bat, and they were like, 'This is a really cool idea. Yeah, let's do that, instead of the bull**** we were doing." Smith added, "And do they owe us anything? Not my character. None of those characters are mine and ****. It would be nice if they were like, 'Hey, man, come on in and do what you do. Help us out.' But don't look for it kids. Don't count on it." In regards to if he and Dini would still pitch their version, Smith said, "No, there's no point. We can't pitch what we don't own. And it looks like they've already taken the best parts… all parts of our idea and ran with it. Hopefully, they take the rest and stuff like that. But yeah, it would be nice if they asked [us] in. But that ain't the way, man. Nobody wants fat Kevin Smith involved in ****. " Smith quipped, "Fox's Gotham is in your future, ladies and gentleman. And it looks like they are going to have a young Bruce Wayne on it. I'll be honest with you. I look more forward to that than the idea of just Gotham. Sounds like a show that I would like… or [ahem] write."