Shrewd and cunning. A powerful fighter. The best detective the world has ever seen.
The very best.
But at what price?
Official press release:
Warner Home Video will present a DC Universe Animated Original Movie panel at New York Comic Con on Friday, October 14. Among those participating are executive producer Bruce Timm, dialogue/casting director Andrea Romano and the perennial choice of Batman, Kevin Conroy. The panel, slated for 3:00-4:00 p.m. in the IGN, will feature the premiere of both the Paul Dini-scripted Catwoman animated short and the trailer for Justice League: Doom, as well as discussion of those two projects and Batman: Year One.
Batman: Year One is based on the landmark 1987 DC Comics titles from 12-time Eisner Award winner Frank Miller and illustrator David Mazzucchelli. The film depicts young Bruce Wayne’s return to Gotham City in his first attempts to fight injustice as a costumed vigilante. The playboy billionaire chooses the guise of a giant bat to combat crime, creates an early bond with a young Lieutenant James Gordon (who is already battling corruption from inside the police department), inadvertently plays a role in the birth of Catwoman, and helps to bring down a crooked political system that infests Gotham.
Primetime television stars Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Ben McKenzie (Southland, The O.C.), Eliza Dushku (Dollhouse, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) provide the core voices for Batman: Year One. Three-time Emmy® Award winner Cranston gives voice to young Jim Gordon, while McKenzie makes his animated voiceover debut as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Fanboy favorites Dushku and Sackhoff fill the roles of Selina Kyle/Catwoman and Detective Sarah Essen, respectively. Alex Rocco (The Godfather) is the voice of crime lord Carmine Falcone.
Animation master Bruce Timm is executive producer of Batman: Year One. Directors are Lauren Montgomery (Superman/Batman: Apocalypse) and Sam Liu (All-Star Superman) from a script penned by Academy Award® nominee Tab Murphy (Gorillas in the Mist, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse).
The all-new, PG-13 rated film arrives October 18, 2011 from Warner Home Video as a Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and DVD, On Demand and for Download.
There is also an opportunity to download-for-purchase in an early window starting October 11 through iTunes, Xbox Live, Zune, VUDU HD Movies and Video Unlimited on the PlayStation Network & Sony Entertainment Network.
Directed by Sam Liu, Lauren Montgomery Batman: Year One Blu-ray and Batman Year One DVD are available October 18th and stars Ben McKenzie as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Bryan Cranston as James Gordon, and Eliza Dushku as Selina Kyle/Catwoman.
Pre-order by clicking one of the images below and make sure to purchase the paperback collection that inspired the animated feature.
Batman Year One (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Batman: Year One (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy)
DCU Batman Year One - Instant Video
The Daily P.O.P. 
The Great Bryan Cranston, (and I call him that for Hal in “Malcolm in the Middle” and his roles in “Seinfeld” & “The X-Files, I’ve never seen “Breaking Bad”!) good casting. I wonder how they’ll deal with Selina being a prostitute in this version of the origin? I felt that *that* was an unnecessary Millerian invention; if Dick Grayson appeared would he have made him a rent boy?! I don’t think so. (*now*, however?, I’m not sure he wouldn’t. Nutty, nutty Frank) Apart from that it’s a good story.
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“if Dick Grayson appeared would he have made him a rent boy?!”
Hahahahahaha!!! As a teen, I was a huge fan of Frank Miller’s Daredevil, so his run on Batman was a dream come true. These days, he’s like the embarrassing drunken uncle at the wedding spouting antisemitic dogma. ‘Holy Terror’ indeed.
In my opinion, it’s Mazzuchelli’s artwork more than Miller’s script that is the real attraction for Batman Year One. It’s one of the few sets of comics I still own from back in the day.
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Robin the Rent Boy Wonder?! “The embarrassing drunken uncle at the wedding spouting antisemitic dogma” well said! Holy Terror or Wholly Terrible? Daredevil was great and, of course, Dark Knight Returns was seminal and, as you say, Year One was good as much for the art as the story but since then he’s suffered a decline into senility and nonsense. What amazing garbage he spouts. Sin City which a lot of people love always seemed like Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer on crack to me so it’s not surprising that he’s developed Spillane’s “nuanced” take on things!
Hal’s Serious Thought for the Day follows. Beware. 🙂 One thing about DKR, the Joker is hinted to have a gay fascination with Batman which is “interesting” I suppose but dubious, it becomes even more dubious when Grant Morrison wants to import it into regular continuity. Making the Joker gay just seems dumb and offensive, maybe that’s just me! It’s like saying “hey, gay equals crazy!” which is not very nice for gay people. I don’t think its necessary.
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Yes, it’s dubious on Miller’s part in a stand-alone possible post-modern future history. In the case of Grant Morrison it’s even less appealing as it is not only implied to be part of continuity, it therefore sexualizes the relationship of two comic book characters, implying it was always such.
Yeah… not one of his better ideas. And don’t get me started on his transformation of Mister Tawky Tawny.
For a better take on making a character gay, you can strangely find it in the modern Moon Knight comic in which Frenchie turns out to have been a repressed homosexual all the time. He doesn’t make a big deal out of it, but it’s a shock to Marc Spector who had known him forever.
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That’s interesting, who wrote that?
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I think it was Charlie Higson.
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Ah, Charlie *Huston*? Charlie Higson is of The Fast Show and Young James Bond semi-fame. Imagine that, Ted and Ralph and Moon Knight Too! Joking apart thanks for the info. Interesting choice on Huston’s part.
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… or Huston… yeah.
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The Dark Knight Returns and The Dark Knight Strikes Again are actually good bookends to Miller’s career to show the good and the bad. The latter was almost as bad as the original was good.
I kind of have to agree on Batman Year One, though… that as much of a Miller fan as I was back in the day… I was actually more drawn in by the Mazzuchelli artwork than the Miller story.
I am a fan of Sin City too, though… It isn’t without its flaws… but I liked it for what it was.
Curiously… not too long after the first Sin City was collected in hardcover… Frank Miller was in Raleigh, NC for a signing at a local comic store. I thought for sure he would be swamped, so I only took that hardcover and my Elektra Lives Again hardcover for him to sign… and yet there weren’t more than maybe 20 people there the whole day! I was kind of disappointed for him… but happy that it meant I got to stay and chat with him a long time that day. I only wished I had known nobody was going to show for the signing, and I would have brought my Dark Knight and some other Miller books with me.
He has become a little derivative of himself, though, in more recent memory… I can almost draw the line right at when he did the Spawn book that one time. Not sure anything after that was as good as his earlier stuff.
I have been looking forward to this animated story, though… although a bit disappointed when I read the other day that it was barely more than an hour long. I get leaving fans asking for more, but I really wish we could get 80-90 minutes on these DC animated movies because most of them have been really good, just a bit shorter than I would like.
I wonder if this sells well, if they will do Year Two, and do it in McFarlane art style.
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http://screenrant.com/batman-year-one-reviews-bluray-kofi-135374/
Interesting review, here’s the answer to the Catwoman question:
“The Catwoman animated short is fairly risque (definitely NOT for kids) given that a good portion of it takes place in a strip club, and that it features an overly-extended sequence of Catwoman doing a very PG-13 striptease on stage. That sexually-suggestive sequence aside, the rest of the animated short is pretty exciting and features the best Catwoman action I’ve personally ever seen. Watching Catwoman leap, punch, kick, flip and sling her bullwhip, you’ll come away knowing why she’s often considered Batman’s equal. I would definitely watch a full-length Catwoman animated feature after seeing this.”
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Thanks for that link, dailypop. I do think that adapting Year One is slightly redundant considering that Batman Begins – which I prefer to the Dark Knight, ooh, controversial 🙂 – basically *already* adapts it with some of The Long Hallowe’en and the O’Neil Batman thrown in. The swarm of bats sequence is a particularly good comics-to-screen conversion.
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