i hope theyre faithfull to the look of the art for this, and in the Year One film too . .


Movie Version Of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns In The Works



It’s going to get rather crowded out there, with alternative Batmen cropping up left, right and centre. We’ll barely be over Christian Bale* when a reboot will see another lucky young man dropped into the role, and there are plans for another, different Bats to appear in a Justice League feature. Add to this the various animated Batmen, from Kevin Conroy, Diedrich Bader and Bruce Greenwood.

Too much Batman? Or never enough?

Well, I think there’s always going to be room for The Dark Knight Returns, don’t you?

Bleeding Cool have heard from multiple sources (enough with the multiples already) that work is underway on a movie adaptation of Frank Miller and Klaus Janson‘s classic The Dark Knight Returns. As you might have guessed, however, this is to be an animated adaptation, much like the recent All Star Superman or in-the-works Year One.

Fittingly, Year One will come along first, but DKR is already in the early stages of development. According to our sources, several veterans of Batman toons past will be on the crew list, though we’re still trying to confirm who is writing and directing the film.

It would be sheer guesswork to try and determine when this might make it to the screen, but it isn’t going to be anytime soon. Here’s hoping they do it right.

Which doesn’t necessarily mean with a dry, determined insistence on copying Miller’s pages…

Timm has already stated that they're sticking with the art style as much as humanly possible and taking everything right out of the original script.

As for DK, eh, once upon a time, when Miller was beloved and capable, I would have liked that but they've already had a bit of that in BTAS so I'm good. Year one, I am looking forward to for the Mazzuchelli style goodness.

I'll give it a go.

I knew it was only a matter of time and am really looking forward to this.

I read that Justice League: Doomed (based on the Morrison JLA arc where R'as Al Ghul discovers Batman's files on how to defeat the Justice league) is next after Batman: Year One, so we will have that to look forward to first.

Art and design looks great, but the voice acting is as weak as all the other DCU features... I love him as Robocop but not liking Weller as Batman. Conroy should always be the voice of the Batman for animation.

Still, a must-buy. DKR is part of my superhero "holy trinity" (also featuring Watchmen and All Star Superman).

I'm sure a Dark Knight Strikes Again adaptation will be next!

I know some voice over work is done while the movie plays in the background so the actors can get cues from what's happening visually in the movie. I'm wondering if that would help at all with this?

I'm fairly meh towards this. If there is one thing both Watchmen and All Star Superman made me realize is that I don't need literal translations like this. I have Year One and I've never bothered to watch it.

Here's my suggestion: Get actual voice actors and stop hiring non-voice actors to do voice work.

Yeah. I mean, Andrea Romano? What the fuck does she know, anyway?

This looks awesome. Can't wait to watch it.

Thanks for missing the point.

I am not bashing her credentials, but everyone she got for this is not actually a voice actor and that is likely a large part of the problem. Save a video game in 2005 this is Peter Weller's first voice acting gig. Michael McKean has done a few in the past, but not all that many. This Wade Williams fellah has a fair bit of voice work, the vast majority of which were projects Romano was working on. Not saying he is bad even, but she seems to be the main person hiring him for the work. Maybe he just doesn't apply to any project she is not working again, because he is not an actual voice actor and just a guy who does voice work on the side. And why did they get an actual young girl to play Robin? That is pretty unusual for animation and I am not convinced it was the best choice, although she still has more voice work experience than Weller.

People are complaining about the voice work on the DCU animated stuff, and the reason why seems clear: These aren't voice actors. If they had gotten people who had actually spent their entire careers honing their voices for actual voice acting I think you would notice the difference.

That post was in reference to Rafael. I can't feel arsed to edit the post.

Oh, I didn't miss it. It just wasn't a particularly good point here.

Everyone is bitching about the voice acting being so-so, I point out there are no actual voice actors. How is that a bad point?

There's voice actors, and then there's voice actors.
You have people who can do voices, and do them extremely well. Some of them can do more than just the voices, they do characters. They actually "ACT!" instead of just reading lines, or doing a voice. That's a much smaller group. And while those guys are great, you just can't keep using the same handful of regulars to do everything, because then everything starts to sound the same. (which is one of the reasons Saturday morning, and After-school cartoons can be so boring and uninspiring) Billy West is fantastic, but when you watch 10 cartoons, and he's the main voice (and several minor ones as well) it gets a little overwhelming and obvious.

Then you have actors. People we know from movies and tv. Some who are very good at their craft, yet when they do VA work, they come across as flat, as if they are just reading lines off the paper. But there is a group, who have the ability to bring their ability to the recording studio. A perfect example is in that promo clip. The guy doing Two-Face sounded awful. Like a person just standing and reading from a page, with no thought to emotion, or character or whatever. The scene with Michael McKean was great. I actually believed him being the psychiatrist. He's one who is very good both in front of the camera, and behind the mic.

And let's not get into the group that does the VA work for dubbed anime. The people who think acting means reading your lines faster, or shouting them, or speaking in a higher pitch, or fey voice. They don't really count as far as I'm concerned. The only really good voice work I've heard is in the big budget stuff (Disney/Miyazaki), where they hire real actors like I mentioned earlier.

Chris Rock on voice acting:

Bubbles is right. The animated shows that can't afford to pay celebrities on an on-going basis and rely on voice actors have good voice acting that suit the shows -- these DCU movies have weak voice acting that is usually awful.

Think about it.

Pixar seems to get good performances out of film actors for their films. I guess a really good voice director would be something important as well.

You should give it a spin. I think it's one of the best of all the DCAU movies.

I humbly disagree. It's decent but it really is a step down from the original material. They don't quite nail the vibe and I think voice acting was part of the problem.