A Dark Knight Rises (No, Not That One)


08/30/12 12:00pm
2 Comments

While The Dark Knight Rises finishes up its run in theaters after box office success (following a tragic opening weekend), Batman fans are eagerly awaiting the next film in the franchise.  However, the proximate filmic outing for the caped crusader won’t be taking place in theaters, and it won’t feature Christian Bale.

Warner Brother’s successful DC Universe Animated Original Movie branch will, on September 25th, put out the first half of a two-part direct-to-DVD animated adaptation of Frank Miller’s seminal The Dark Knight Returns.  The film, officially entitled Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, will feature the vocal talent of Peter Weller (Robocop, and, more importantly, The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the Eight Dimension) as an aged Bruce Wayne/Batman and Ariel Winter (Modern Family) as a new, female Robin, named Carrie Kelly.

Though the trailer for the new animated film has been floating around the internet for about a month now, just yesterday Warner Brothers released the first clip from the film, featuring an iconic scene from the comic book series (one which Christopher Nolan has also adapted).  If this short piece is any indication, the film looks to be a faithful, if lengthy (two parts? really?) adaptation of the Batman story which comics fans have been waiting decades to see acted out.  For those of you who found the Nolan Batman films too light-hearted, this animated movie may be the Dark Knight for you.

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  • critterfur

    Wow…it’s amazing that they’re doing this at all, but I have to admit, the format certainly lends itself to such an endeavor. Because the DC Animated films don’t have to be set in a certain continuity (and are now often stand-alone projects, as opposed to a number of years ago when they had to fit into the animated series of Batman, Superman, or the Justice League), it is totally possible to finally adapt this great graphic novel. I think I’ve seen on a few different websites that this animated version is rated PG-13, which makes me think it’ll be fairly close to the original source material in its darkness, but maybe not quite (after all, I think old Ollie Queen’s dialogue in the original story merits an R-rating just on its own). It’ll be interesting to watch younger viewers discover this, especially those who haven’t read the original graphic novel. Will they be surprised at just how much material was lifted from this story for not only Nolan’s Batman films, but Tim Burton’s as well? Anyway, I’m very excited to see this all play out; I still haven’t gotten around to watching the adaptation of Frank Miller’s other great Batman story, Batman: Year One.

  • http://twitter.com/JoshWatchinTV Joshuay

    I’m BESIDE MYSELF. I have a well-worn copy of the graphic novel on my bookshelf at home. I DIED when B:TAS paid homage to it in an episode, and I’m excited to see this come to life.