07 June 2010

Batman Year One Movie on the Horizon


Word is out from ComicsContinuum.com that there is an animated adaptation of Batman: Year One in the works. The exact quote is:

Batman: Year One, the comic-book story by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchilli, is being adapted into one of Warner Home Video's DC Universe animated movies, The Continuum has learned.

According to sources, the film will be directed by Sam Liu, who co-directed Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Warner Bros. did not confirm the film's existence. The studio has not commented on projects until their announced release.

Batman: Under the Red Hood arrives in July, with Superman Batman: Apocalypse to follow (in September?) is it possible Batman: Year One will be the next one to arrive (around March 2011) followed by the rumored Green Lantern DtV next summer? If you look back at Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths and Superman Batman: Public Enemies, that is a considerable streak of FIVE Bat-centric movies in that Green Lantern sandwich. I am a big fan of the Dark Knight I just hope he lets some of the other heroes get their due as well. This should be fun; hopefully its only a matter of time until The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns.

Batman: Year One was at one point going to be adapted as a live action film. Instead, it became a pretty significant influence upon the Batman Begins / Dark Knight films as noted by the wikipedia:

* Major characters like Commissioner Loeb, Detective Flass and Carmine 'The Roman' Falcone who are featured prominently in Batman Begins.
* The scene with Bruce Wayne returning from years of training abroad on board a plane reminisces the first page of the graphic novel.
* Christian Bale's 'street attire' in Batman Begins mimics the clothes in the first issue of Batman: Year One when Bruce is walking down the Lower East End.
* Tying Falcone up. In the graphic novel Batman ties The Roman in his own house; in the film, he ties The Roman to a searchlight.
* In the final act of Batman Begins, while being cornered by the GCPD at Arkham Asylum Batman uses a high-frequency device to attract his bats from the cave. This is taken from the final act of the graphic novel when Batman does the same thing at the Abandoned Tenement Fire.
* The concluding scene where Batman and Gordon are on top of the police headquarters continues, to an extent, the final page of the graphic novel where newly promoted Jim Gordon waits for Batman to arrive. In both the book and the film, Gordon announces the coming of a new threat: The Joker.
* During the famous viral-marketing for The Dark Knight, an audio clip was available that depicted Harvey Dent walking up to a hostage situation and subduing the threat. While this may not be a direct adaptation, it does resemble the scene with the hostage situation in Batman: Year One, only replacing James Gordon with Harvey Dent. Although the entire incident and Dent's role occurs out of earshot and thus didn't require for Aaron Eckhart to play out the clip.
* The concluding scene where Two-Face holds Gordon's family at gunpoint, is reminiscent of the Year One scene where Gordon's family is at danger from The Roman and Loeb's men. Batman saves Gordon's son from a fall in the film just as he does in the book.

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