It’s going to be a big comics-related summer, what with Man of Steel and Star Trek: Into Darkness filling out the season in local theaters. But the first movie based on a comics superhero will be Iron Man 3, and it will zoom into your neighborhood on Friday, May 3.
Tag Archives: Dark Knight Returns
SNEAK PEEK: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 2 – I Am The Law!
Can’t wait to see if the second half of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns animated movie is as good as the first, or if certain elements are removed to tone down the graphic imagery. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment released a new clip from the movie, that you can check out, after the jump.
INTERVIEW: Michael McKean on playing Dr. Batholomew Wolper
Michael McKean just can’t stay away from the fanboy realm.
The versatile star of film, television and stage continues to deviate from his mainstream roles to appear in all forms of super hero entertainment, this time lending his voice to the egomaniacal Dr. Bartholomew Wolper in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.
TRAILER: Dark Knight Returns: Part One
Warner Brothers and DC keep chugging along with putting out animated movies based off the seminal tales throughout their history. This time up it’s Dark Knight Returns. To include the full scope of the story the Dark Knight Returns has been split into two films, and the trailer for the first is here.
AUCTION: Frank Miller’s Dark Knight cover up on the auction block
Heritage Auctions continues to tantalize comic book fans with fantastic art offerings this month. First it was Calvin and Hobbes, and now we learn that the auction site has nabbed the original cover artwork for The Absolute Dark Knight collection, and the other is the Batman: The Dark Knight Returns 10th anniversary edition.
SDCC’11: Dark Knight getting animated treatment in two parts
During the Warner Bros. Animation panel at Comic-Con the company announced its lineup of animated movies coming in 2012.
- First up is Justice League: Doom – an animated take on Mark Waid’s JLA: Tower of Babel story.
- Superman vs. The Elite – From what I can tell, this is an adaptation of What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way? by Joe Kelly that appeared in Action Comics #775 from 2001.
- The Dark Knight Returns – Do you really need to know what this one is about?
The real surprise about The Dark Knight Returns is Warner Animation plans to release this movie in two parts. It’s odd because this is a direct to DVD animated movie, and you’d think the company could make the movie as long or short as they wanted. This two-parter announcement may be partially in response to the large number of movie franchises that are splitting their movies in two in order to rake in more money.
ART APPRECIATION MOMENT OF THE DAY: Felipe Massafera
Here is a simply beautiful piece of Dark Knight Returns art from Felipe Massafera. It’s brilliant in its execution of light and shadow, and I like how it has the feel of Alex Ross, without going all Alex Ross-y.
ART RUMOR: Dark Knight splash page going up for auction
According to Bleeding Cool, an iconic splash page from the 1980′s may be going up on the auction block in a few weeks. The site reports that Frank Miller and Klaus Janson’s splash page from the Hunt the Dark Knight issue of The Dark Knight Returns will be offered up to someone who has really deep pockets. In the last several months pages from The Watchmen, Captain America, and Superman have hit the art auction circuit, and have fetched some pretty high prices.
Whoever gets this piece should feel pretty happy to have this on display in their space. And for the person who comes in second, please feel free to contact me. I think I have a better way for you to flush away invest your excess millions.
Art Appreciation Moment of the Day: Batman vs. Superman
Because it can’t always be about hot girls and big boobs…sometimes it’s fun to see Batman and Superman kick each other’s asses.
Who Watches the Watchmen? Not As Many As You Might Think
As expected, the Zack Snyder adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ masterpiece Watchmen was the top movie this past weekend bringing in $55.7 million domestically and $83.2 million worldwide. As great as that news is, Watchmen didn’t open as high as some had expected, not even meeting Zack Snyder’s last film, 300, which brought in $70.9 million domestically.
As hyped as audiences were after seeing the trailer that was tacked on to the Dark Knight Returns movie, I wonder what could be the reason for the lower than expected numbers? Fans loyal to Alan Moore, boycotting the film? Too much hype that overloaded and turned off potential audience? Those waiting until next weekend to see the film in hopes of avoiding the large crowds this past weekend? The R rating and two hour forty minute run time? Or is it the economy?
Those expressing caution turned out to have been right, so Warners had to manage expectations after the fact.
A substantial roadblock was “Watchmen’s” running time of 2:40. At that length, theaters couldn’t play as many runs of the pic as they did “300,” which ran under two hours.
“It truly makes a huge difference. Every studio wanted to attach their trailer to ‘Watchmen,’ so it ended up being more like three hours. When a movie is 2:40, there’s only one main show a day,” Warners prexy of domestic distribution Dan Fellman said. “We’re pleased with the opening.”
I went and saw the movie on Sunday, and there were less than a dozen people in the theater; great for me as I didn’t have to worry about all the talkers as I spilled nacho cheese everywhere, but not so good for those hoping comic book movies will remain strong draws at the box office.
Don’t forget, for those that did see the movie, we do have a talk back post for you to weigh in your thoughts.
MPS#18: The Dark Knight Returns Podcast
In this outing, Image founders head for home, wall-crawlers head back to the big screen, X-Men head back to Earth, DC’s Big Three head for trouble, the next big thing is twenty years ago, and we tackle head on one of the world’s great conundrums: Can Logan’s claws pierce Steve Rogers’ shield? Plus, a look back at Frank Miller’s opus. All this and much much more on this, as the podcast reaches the age of majority.
Show Notes After The Jump.
On the Next Major Spoilers Podcast – The Dark Knight Returns
On the next Major Spoilers Podcast, we’re diving deep into the comic that, in 1986, made me sit up and go Hellz Yeah! That collected trade would be none other than Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.
If any comic has a claim to have truly reinvigorated the genre, then The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller–known also for his excellent Sin City series and his superb rendering of the blind superhero Daredevil–is probably the top contender. Batman represented all that was wrong in comics and Miller set himself a tough task taking on the camp crusader and turning this laughable, innocuous children’s cartoon character into a hero for our times. The great Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing, the arguably peerless Watchmen) argued that only someone of Miller’s stature could have done this. Batman is a character known well beyond the confines of the comic world (as are his retinue) and so reinventing him, while keeping his limiting core essentials intact, was a huge task.Miller went far beyond the call of duty. The Dark Knight is a success on every level. Firstly it does keep the core elements of the Batman myth intact, with Robin, Alfred the butler, Commissioner Gordon, and the old roster of villains, present yet brilliantly subverted. Secondly the artwork is fantastic–detailed, sometimes claustrophobic, psychotic. Lastly it’s a great story: Gotham City is a hell on earth, street gangs roam but there are no heroes. Decay is ubiquitous. Where is a hero to save Gotham? It is 10 years since the last recorded sighting of the Batman. And things have got worse than ever. Bruce Wayne is close to being a broken man but something is keeping him sane: the need to see change and the belief that he can orchestrate some of that change. Batman is back. The Dark Knight has returned. Awesome.
We have really enjoyed reading your comments on the show, and I know there are thousands of you out there who have read this series. In the comment section below, share your thoughts. Then listen to the next Major Spoilers Podcast and see if we share your thoughts with the thousands of Major Spoilers Podcast listeners.
It’s sure to be a good time, but probably not two hours long like the last one.