Despite Warner Bros. and Schumacher's interest with "Year One", Lee Shapiro, a comic book fan, and Stephen Wise pitched the studio with a script titled "Batman: DarKnight" in mid-1998. "DarKnight", which was largely inspired by "The Dark Knight Returns", had Bruce Wayne giving up his crime fighting career after becoming disillusioned with his alias's inability to inspire fear and mystique in his enemies, and Dick Grayson attending Gotham University. Dr. Jonathan Crane uses his position as professor of psychology at Gotham University and as head psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum to conduct his fear experiments (this element would later appear in "Batman Begins"). During a vengeful confrontation with a colleague, Dr. Kirk Langstrom, Crane unknowingly initiates Kirk's transformation into the creature known as Man-Bat. Citizens of Gotham believe Man-Bat's nightly activities to be Batman's "bloodthirsty" return. Bruce once again becomes Batman "to clear his name," and solve the mystery of Man-Bat. Kirk struggles with his "man-vs.-monster" syndrome, as he longs to both reunite with his wife and get revenge on Crane, while Crane exacts revenge on those responsible for his dismissal from both Arkham and the university while encountering truths about his past. As with Schumacher's idea for "Batman Unchained", the film would have had a darker tone. Warner Bros. Pictures formally decided not to move forward with the project in 2001, and passed on "Batman: DarKnight" in favor of other projects. In 2015, the screenplay was released on Amazon.