This film has certainly been a long time coming. Back in 2000, news emerged that Warner Bros. had hired Darren Aronofsky to write and direct a Batman reboot, based on Frank Miller’s seminal Batman: Year One graphic novel. Aronofsky worked with Miller on getting a script drafted, loosely adapting Miller’s original material, but the project was eventually put on the backburner.
Now, however, The Playlist is reporting that the project is very much taking shape, with two pictures from the animated film having been released, which you can see below. The film is to be co-directed by Lauren Montgomery (Green Lantern: Emerald Knights) and Sam Lui (The Batman), both of whom have a solid grounding in directing animated versions of comic book superheroes. And the announcement of the cast is looking very promising.
Taking the lead, playing Bruce Wayne/Batman, will be Benjamin McKenzie (The O.C.), whose TV series, Southland, has recently been picked up for a fourth season. Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle, Breaking Bad) is going to be lending his voice for James Gordon, Eliza Dushku (Dollhouse) will be playing the voice of Catwoman, which seems like a perfect fit, given Dushku’s familiarity with roles that require a bit of an edge. Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) will be voicing Detective Sarah Essen, a love interest for Cranston’s Gordon, and Alex Rocco (Smokin’ Aces) will be voicing Carmine Falcone.
According to executive producer Bruce Timm (Green Lantern: Emerald Knights), the film will be staying quite close to Miller’s original 1987 work:
“The source material is surprisingly cinematic; it’s a pretty straight forward literal retelling… [David] Mazzucchelli‘s artwork is beautifully composed and we were able to refer to the comic for about 80 percent of the camera setups.”
And THR quotes Cranston as saying that he had initially turned down the Gordon role without even wanting to read the script, unaware of the kind of depth animation can have:
“I wasn’t aware of this level of storytelling in animation. I confess that freely,” he says. “They didn’t give the characters the short shrift. I was stunned.”
So far, so good. Warner Bros. have announced that they plan to premiere the film at Comic-Con this summer, and the film will then go straight to DVD after that. I have to admit, I’ve not read Miller’s original, but the two pictures they’ve released from the upcoming film both look pretty great, so it’s certainly tempting me to go pick up a copy of Batman: Year One and get through it before the film comes out. Until then, here are the two pictures to whet your appetites:
