I guarantee you this: no one watching Darren Aronofsky’s debut feature, the fiendishly clever (not so say ferociously cerebral) indie pic, Pi, would have come out of a screening saying: “Gee, what this guy should do next is a Batman movie!” The connection between the story of a mathematical genius and his struggle against madness and the saga of a guy in a latex suit with a rocket-boosted car does not, after all, immediately hit you in the face.

And, to be quite honest, I would probably also have guaranteed that no one coming out of Aronofsky’s second feature, the doomed-druggie tale Requiem for a Dream - based on stories by Hubert Selby Jr, long-time chronicler of the New York addicts’ scene, which premiered at Cannes - would have seen him as a natural match for the Caped Crusader, either.

But someone obviously did, ’cos in mid-September Warner Bros announced that Aronofsky had been hired to develop the fifth outing for Bruce Wayne’s alter ego, working alongside Frank Miller, who wrote Batman: Year One, the graphic novel (read: up-market comic) on which the new movie will be based.

Miller’s story, first published in the late eighties, is very much in keeping with the darker side of the superhero that distinguished the first two Batman movies (which were by far the best and by far the most successful), and focuses on the struggle and eventual understanding between the Dark Knight and the (then) Lieutenant James Gordon of the Gotham City police force.

Indeed, Batman: Year One (which can conveniently be shortened to the ultrahip Batman YO) is supposed to have been one of the inspirations for Tim Burton, who helmed the first two flicks. He, come to think of it, was not an obvious choice at the time for a big-budget franchise, either - not on the basis of such films as Pee Wee’s Great Adventure, Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice.

But Burbank thinking in this respect seems to be that, if the franchise is to be reinvented after the relatively poor box-office performance - and out-and-out critical lambasting - of outing No. 4, Batman & Robin (1997), one of Hollywood’s new generation of semi-domesticated iconoclasts should be brought in to give the whole thing a facelift. So I’m sure it will come as no surprise to learn that Bryan Singer was also in line for the job, even before he had a hit last summer with X-Men.

But, just to be on the safe side, Warners will also be bringing out another, less dark version of the story called Batman Beyond, a live-action movie based on the WB Kids Network animated show of the same name and due to be directed by Boaz Yakin.

JERSEY GUYS

Meanwhile, another self-confessed comic-book freak is abandoning the world of Hollywood superheroes - or at any rate for the time being: Kevin Smith, who became a cult figure both for his direction of the ultra-low-budget Clerks and for his creation of the character of Silent Bob (who made his debut in the same film).

Smith has carried on in much the same vein with a string of other Jersey-set comedies, including Mallrats, Chasing Amy and the rather higher-profile Dogma, which featured Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as a couple of maverick angels (not to mention a guest appearance by Silent Bob). In between, though, Smith kept flitting across to the West Coast to undertake writing assignments designed to revitalise old favourites such as The Six Million Dollar Man (nothing much came of that), and Superman Reborn, the complete post-Salkind revamp of America’s other favourite superhero son. That little idea was originally fast-tracked in the summer of 1997, with Nicolas Cage set to don the spandex.

It all began when someone at Warners heard that Smith was a comic-book aficionado (the polite word for ‘freak’) and showed him the working screenplay for Superman Reborn. Smith was appalled. “So,” said the exec, “think you could do better?” “Sure,” said Smith. “You’re hired,” said the exec. Whether he did or did not do better, we shall never know, however, because Tim Burton subsequently came aboard the project, jettisoned Smith’s script and started on one of his own. And, for all I know, he’s tinkering with it still: either way, there’s no immediate sign of a Nic Cage-starring Superman movie.

Smith, though, is going back to familiar territory and is readying Episode Five in the ‘Jersey saga’ (he originally told me, at the time of Chasing Amy, that it had always been planned as a trilogy but, what the hell, why retire a workhorse when it’s still got life in it?) for Miramax’s Dimension Films.

The new film was known for a while as View Askew 5 (after the name of Smith’s production company), but recently acquired both a title - Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back - and a release date: August 10, 2001, through Dimension. It will see all the old favourites - who must now be nearing the end of their extremely protracted adolescence - wheeled out for one last go-round. They will include Jason Mewes as Jay, Smith himself as Silent Bob, plus Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson, all from Clerks; Jason Lee and Ben Affleck from Mallrats and Chasing Amy, and Chris Rock from Dogma. And it will definitely, says Smith, be the last visit to what he calls “the Askewniverse”.