I've mentioned previously that I almost gave up on FOX's "Gotham" after a few episodes because it just didn't do much for me, but it has picked it up as of late and has lived up to the promise of the "Batman prequel" premise.
But it seems there was another "Gotham" concept floating around in Hollywoodland at almost the exact same time, and instead of focusing on Jim Gordon's battle against corruption, the series would have focused on original characters and how Batman's unusual world affected ordinary Gothamites. The series would have opened with Olivia Sage, a college dropout and a daughter of a Gotham City police officer whose sister has just been murdered. With Olivia's murder investigation as the entry point into Gotham's seedy underbelly, viewers would have seen The Riddler, Black Mask, Harley Quinn, Joker Venom and The Falcone crime family throughout the first season.
Sounds much to me like a Kurt Busiek/"Astro City" take on Gotham City and Batman's extended universe...which could have been rather awesome.
The original writer of this treatment package, Harry Locke IV, intended to self-finance and distribute the project on YouTube, he recently wrote on Voices From Krypton. But at the request of his production partners, he aimed a bit higher and reworked the project with the intent of selling it to Warner Bros. After impressing a talent agency with his treatment, Locke got a show runner from "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" on board, and was almost ready to pitch Warner Bros.
Unfortunately, timing did not favor Locke. As he was gearing up his pitch, Warner Bros. made the announcement that they would produce FOX's "Gotham" as we now know it. Locke has now posted his entire treatment package for the series, which you can read here. His vision for Gotham extends through three seasons, and would have shown viewers many different nooks and crannies in the Dark Knight's city.
While "Gotham" has performed very well for Warner Bros. under executive producer Bruno Heller's supervision, it's hard not to wonder how Locke's approach would have fared with viewers.
