Batman: Year One

[Rocketman]

REALLY hoping they eventually do The Long Halloween and follow it up with Dark Victory. Tim Sale's style is practically ready for animation. So simple, his designs and work.

I would literally SCREAM like a little girl if this happens.
Literally. This is basically my DREAM project.
Do Long Halloween and Dark Victory as just a huge, 6-hour epic.

 

[craigdbfan]

I can't wait for that. The animation if adapted as respectfully like Year One did would be great.

 

[theMan-Bat]

Bruce Timm, Sam Liu, Ben McKenzie, Eliza Dushku and Katee Sackhoff interviews about Batman: Year One...

Interviewer for movieweb.com: "Now tell me how you took such an iconic book and made an animated movie out of it."

Producer Bruce Timm: "We just sat down with the comic and reread it, because I've been a fan of the comic since it first came out, and it had a really big impact on me. I just got done rereading it a few years ago, because a lot of things that you read when you were younger, you read them again and go, 'Oh, this isn't nearly as good as I remember from when I was younger.' This was even better. I was surprised to see that it really held up. I just always wanted to do something with it, and when we sat down to do it I just insisted every step of the way from the script, to the character designs, to the animation style, I just wanted it to be like the comic come to life. Any time somebody would veer away from the comic, like in the screenplay, Tab Murphy did the screenplay and did a really, really great job of adapting it for the film, but every now and then I would be reading the script and going, 'Oh, wait a minute, that lines not right,' and I go back and look at the comic and go, 'Oh, yep, the line in the comic is better, put that line in there.' So it was just a mater of just constantly referring to the comic and making sure it stayed true."

Interviewer: "So basically the fans aren't going to be disappointed when they sit down and watch this, you hope."

Producer Bruce Timm: "You can't ever please everybody. There's always going to be somebody who says, 'You got that wrong,' or 'That parts not right.' All I can say is that we did the best job we could to try to make it as faithful to the comic as possible."

Interviewer: "What did you see in Ben McKenzie that you thought made the perfect Bruce Wayne/Batman? Because he's an interesting choice."

Producer Bruce Timm: "Right. Well, you know we've had so many different Batmen over the years, starting with Kevin Conroy, who's awesome, and Bruce Greenwood was really awesome, and I loved Jeremy Sisto and William Baldwin. This movie needed a really specific sound to Bruce Wayne and Batman because he's young, he's only in his early 20s in this movie, so he needed to sound young, but at the same time he needed to sound like he could convincingly be this scary, badass Batman. So I remember I was watching Southland one day and I was noticing Ben McKenzie's voice and thinking, 'Oh, this guys got a really great voice, he's got a really cool presence.' So when we were throwing ideas around for who we could get to play Batman in this movie, he was one of the names that came up and he was available and, bang, there you go."

Interviewer: "I know that Christopher Nolan has his Batman movie coming out and it may be the end of that. Is there any chance that after that Warner Brothers will turn to Batman: Year One and that idea and storyline for a (live-action) feature film?"

Producer Bruce Timm: "I don't know. That's way above my pay grade. I have no idea."

Interviewer: "Batman: Year One is a very popular book with a lot of fans of Batman, how closely did you stick to the book in making this? I mean, is this pretty much just an animated depiction of that?"

Co-Director Sam Liu: "It pretty much is. In this case we were actually a little bit short, and that's the reason we had to put in that Catwoman short, because we were short, and we did pretty much everything that was in the book already and we were still short. Even though, to me, it seems like a long story, but when we actually translated it, it actually came out to be 10 or 15 minutes short, so there's a couple of things that the writer (Tab Murphy) had taken out, but we ended up adding them, but we were still short. I think that gained us 4 or 5 minutes, it was the Harvey Dent scene, originally that wasn't in the movie but now it's in the movie because we were short. So I remember we had a meeting and we asked Bruce (Timm), should we just start padding it, are there other things that we should just stick in, and Bruce was very adamant about being absolutely faithful, so we didn't tinker at all with it."

Interviewer: "I believe this is the first time Ben McKenzie's voicing Bruce Wayne. What did you see in him that you thought would make a good Bruce Wayne? I know he kind of plays a brooding character on Southland, it seems like a really good choice."

Co-Director Sam Liu: "Yeah, it's interesting with some casting because a lot of times we use people that we think that maybe they don't have a lot of experience in the voice recording booth, but it seems like they have some kind of a quality and texture to their voice, and Ben McKenzie was one of those guys, and he seemed a little nervous in the beginning but he started to loosen up towards the end, but yeah, and he was great."

Interviewer: "Can you tell use about some of the other cast members who you have voicing the iconic pages out of this book? Because fans have voices in their heads of what they sound like so that must be a challenge to bring people in that meet the fans expectations."

Co-Director Sam Liu: "Yeah, yeah, to me one of the big ones was Bryan Cranston. Me, personally, I wasn't thinking of his name, but when his name came up we all just agreed, 'Wow, I never thought about that but he'd be a perfect Gordon.' And when he came in we all just said, 'He's perfect for it.' The other really surprising one to me was Katee Sackhoff. She's got such a great texture to her voice, and when she plays Essen it's all the emotional range, and there's a little bit of grit in her voice and it just makes the scene."

Interviewer: "What is the story of the Catwoman short?"

Co-Director Sam Liu: "The short came about because we were being very faithful to the source material and there just wasn't enough, so it was a thing were we were deciding: do we pad, do we add, Bruce (Timm) didn't want that, so Paul Dini had a script about Catwoman during the shorts process so we thought, 'Oh, why don't we use that to put it in the (Batman: Year One) Universe because it has Holly in it, so that makes perfect sense, it's like a story that happens after Year One."

Interviewer: "Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale are ending their Batman after this year, is there any way that your being set up as the new Bruce Wayne, because their going to be continuing the franchise, they already said that, would you want to do live-action Batman?"

Ben McKenzie (young Bruce Wayne/Batman): "Yes, of course I would love to do that. I don't think that's grounded in any..."

Interviewer: "It's a fun rumor."

Ben McKenzie (young Bruce Wayne/Batman): "It's a fun rumor so let's start it. No, no, it was a real pleasure to have a chance to play such an iconic character, played by dozens and dozens of fantastic actors over the years in various forms, both live-action and animated, so it's intimidating, it's intimidating to get the call and be asked to do it and to not be able to say no, because of course it's such a great character and such a great graphic novel, I always loved that novel so I had to do it, and I'm really pleased how it turned out. It's a really terrific movie. I'm really happy with it, I think I did alright, I think everybody in it is terrific. I think the animation really fits the noirish kind of mood of the graphic novel, and I think the fans are going to be excited."

Interviewer: "I know everybody has had a different take on the Batman voice, especially when he puts on the cowl, how did you find the right timber that you wanted to bring to this? I know you can go deep, how deep do you go?"

Ben McKenzie (young Bruce Wayne/Batman): "Well, he's a younger Bruce Wayne. That's an important story point in the graphic novel. He's come back to Gotham to try to get some justice in a city that has become lawless, and he's trying on this alter ego, but he doesn't have it down yet. So he's still working on becoming fully confident in that role of Batman. So the timber of his voice and the pitchness is a little unsteady initially. It isn't quiet as deep as it becomes later on when he not only becomes more comfortable as Batman, but also, I think, quite frankly, he becomes comfortable in a psychotic way with being Batman, with embracing the vigilante side that perhaps we all have inside of us. We all see unjust things going on all over the world, and many of us, in some fantastical way, would like to solve those, and get some retribution. As he gets older he gets much more comfortable with it (with being Batman), but as a younger man, he's still figuring it out. So as the movie progresses you see him get more comfortable, but initially he's kind of in fits and starts."

Eliza Dushku (Selina Kyle/Catwoman): "It's (Batman: Year One is) such an iconic piece of martial, and it's (Batman material has) been through so many incarnations, there's been so many incarnations of it, and I think a lot of women I know deep down have been drawn to this Catwoman, this specifically (Batman: Year One) this is her introduction, and in this we see a side of her, and parts of her life, and parts of who she is that people maybe aren't as familiar with. And I just found that, between Andrea (voice director Andrea Romano) and her direction, it's a little different with voice-over but it's almost more specific, as far as, there's a fine line between doing the voice-over and having it be over the top or just right, and you have kind of a small space with your voice to kind of land it, and I felt like everybody, all of the other actors, Bryan (Cranston) and Ben (McKenzie) and Katee (Sackhoff), it just was beautiful. I thought it was so authentic, and I love the retro style, and it was just an honor to be a part, you know."

Interviewer for voicesfromkrypton.com: "Obviously you've already made your part in pop culture history with Buffy (the Vampire Slayer), but how does it feel to be part of this particular legacy (Batman), because the way I look at it is when somebody participates in one of these things, you now become a part of the greater whole."

Eliza Dushku (Selina Kyle/Catwoman): "It's an honor and a privilege, it's an honor and a privilege, truly."

Interviewer: "Catwoman - is there anything that you as a person can identify with this character and try to bring to it?"

Eliza Dushku (Selina Kyle/Catwoman): "Oh, yeah. I think a lot of people are familiar with my characters like Faith (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), these sort of strong and vicious but deep down very wounded women, and nothings just black and white. I think that people can identify with the characters I play because they do truly awful things but there's something inside, there's a humanity that people relate to, there's something that people connect to. It's not just good or evil, there's a lot of layers, and she's (Selina Kyle/Catwoman's) a prostitute, and she's abrasive, and she's in your face, but you look at her relationship with Holly and she has this very maternal, protective, loyal quality to her, and she wants to take the credit, she says she wants to put a scratch on his (the Roman's) face, 'Their giving the credit to Batman?!' She's a woman that wants it known that it's not just a man's world. It's not just the men who are taking care of buisness, and cleaning things up, and getting things done."

Interviewer for movieweb.com: "Now you play Sarah Essen in this movie. How did you decide on a voice for this character? It's such an iconic book that a million fans already have this voice already in their heads. What did you think you needed to do to bring it to life?"

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "Now I'm nervous. What if I didn't? What if I completely messed up?"

Interviewer: "They'll probably be picketing outside your house."

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "Their already picketing outside my house. Every time I do a job. 'Starbuck's a man.' Anyway. What was the question?"

Interviewer: "I was just wondering how you hit on the perfect voice for this or if you just used your own voice?"

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "For this I actually used my own voice because it's the closest character I've ever played to myself, minus the pilot I just did (playing deputy Victoria Moretti in Longmire). For a lot of the characters that I did, I actually changed the tone of my voice, gone down or gone up, and changed the way that I spoke. For this I really just played her as me, because she's a tough girl, but she's also sweet, and sincere, and wide-eyed, and optimistic. So I wanted to give her this child-like quality because at the same time it allows you to forgive her for what she does."

Interviewer: "You have the book. That must be a great toll to just know what to do as an actress to bring it to life, because you have it all laid out for you."

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "Yeah, that's the main thing with voice-over, you just really really want to know the script, not perfectly word for word or anything, but you want to know your moments and your beats, because it's voice-over, you can jump all around, and you don't know quit how their going to do it. I had no idea how Andrea (voice director Andrea Romano) was going to shot it, if she was just going to take dialogue from all over the place. So I just really wanted to have my moments picked and hopefully it worked. Hopefully there wont be any picketing."

Interviewer: "Did you get to work with Ben (McKenzie) at all, or was it one of those things where they stick you in a room and you don't see anybody until this products finished?"

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "Yeah, I didn't get to work with Ben (McKenzie), but the pilot I just did (Longmire) was from one of the producers of Southland (Chris Chulack), so we kind of are in the same group. I've known of Ben (McKenzie), I just kissed him on the cheek. I've wanted to do that for a long time. Right? Don't you want to do that? Just sneak attack him. He can't stop you. Especially when he's on camera because he can't be mad. Right? It's like perfect. Right?"

Interviewer: "Is there any chance you guys would be in a live-action Batman? Christopher Nolan - Their done with their thing."

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "I'd love that. That'd be amazing."

Interviewer for theflickcast.com: "This is something different for you. Everybody knows you as the kind of tough, rugged Starbuck (on Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Galactica reboot), and now your playing the tough, rugged Detective, so..."

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "So totally different."

Interviewer: "What's it like working with the cast in the DC Universe? What's it like?"

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "I love it...I've been trying forever to get into this Batman world. I'm a huge fan of the comic books. I don't remember looking at one since I was a kid, but I was constantly stealing all of my brothers comic books when I was a kid, and it was Batman constantly. I loved all of the villains in Batman, I loved them all. So for me it was really exciting, so to be involved, it's fantastic, I'm really excited, and then to play a home wrecker is even better."

Interviewer: "Tell us about your character in the animated movie."

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "I play Detective Sarah Essen, who is a Detective in Gotham, and she comes into work with Lieutenant Gordon, and their working on trying to figure out who this vigilante is, and she finds herself in this situation were their working long hours, trying to solve this mystery, and she's actually the first one who says: 'Bruce Wayne,' because he requires money. So she actually figured it out before anyone else."

Interviewer: "Before anyone?"

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "Yes!"

Interviewer: "Wow. She solved the whole thing?"

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "I did, I did."

http://www.movieweb.com/comic-con/2...terviews-with-katee-sackhoff-and-ben-mckenzie
http://www.voicesfromkrypton.com/2011/08/batman-year-one-chatting-catwoman-with-eliza-dushku.html
http://theflickcast.com/2011/07/23/...-talks-batman-year-one-new-riddick-film-more/

 

[Prison Mike]

They've already announced their movies for next year. Justice League: Doom based off of Mark Waid's JLA: Tower of Babel, Superman vs. the Elite presumably based off of Action Comics #775, the Dark Knight Returns Part 1 and the Dark Knight Returns Part 2.

It seems more like Warner Premiere wants to do a more fully accurate adaptation of Frank Miller's Batman works since the Dark Knight Returns is said to be as faithful as Batman: Year One will be. I think it'll be far more likely to see the Dark Knight Strikes Again and All Star Batman & Robin over Batman: Year Two.

Also, Batman: Year Two feels rather out of place with all the other mythos regarding Batman's early career. And shortly after being released, DC pretty much replaced Year Two with stories such as Dark Moon Rising, The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, and the Man Who Laughs. They feel more in tone with what Miller presented than what Year Two did.

So TDKR will be broken into two parts? Will they be seperate movies or will both parts be on the same disc?

 

[Spider-Kurt!]

Seperate movie if I'm not mistaken.

 

[TheDragonator]

Ironically, Year one is what Schumacher wanted to do, and Aronofsky.

 

[craigdbfan]

As good of a director Aronofsky is I didn't like his idea of a Batman movie and I have no interest in seeing what Schumachers interpretation of Year One would have been.

I'm still overjoyed that we got Begins instead.

 

[TheDragonator]

As good of a director Aronofsky is I didn't like his idea of a and I have no interest in seeing what Schumachers interpretation of would have been.

I'm still overjoyed that we got Begins instead.

From what I read, Schumacher actually intended for it to be dark. The reason Batman Forever and B&R were so campy was because of WB.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

Under Aronofsky we could've gotten a slow, introspective character study and a detective Batman we always wanted.

 

[Panthro]

Bruce Timm, Sam Liu, Ben McKenzie, Eliza Dushku and Katee Sackhoff interviews about Batman: Year One...

Interviewer for movieweb.com: "Now tell me how you took such an iconic book and made an animated movie out of it."

Producer Bruce Timm: "We just sat down with the comic and reread it, because I've been a fan of the comic since it first came out, and it had a really big impact on me. I just got done rereading it a few years ago, because a lot of things that you read when you were younger, you read them again and go, 'Oh, this isn't nearly as good as I remember from when I was younger.' This was even better. I was surprised to see that it really held up. I just always wanted to do something with it, and when we sat down to do it I just insisted every step of the way from the script, to the character designs, to the animation style, I just wanted it to be like the comic come to life. Any time somebody would veer away from the comic, like in the screenplay, Tab Murphy did the screenplay and did a really, really great job of adapting it for the film, but every now and then I would be reading the script and going, 'Oh, wait a minute, that lines not right,' and I go back and look at the comic and go, 'Oh, yep, the line in the comic is better, put that line in there.' So it was just a mater of just constantly referring to the comic and making sure it stayed true."

Interviewer: "So basically the fans aren't going to be disappointed when they sit down and watch this, you hope."

Producer Bruce Timm: "You can't ever please everybody. There's always going to be somebody who says, 'You got that wrong,' or 'That parts not right.' All I can say is that we did the best job we could to try to make it as faithful to the comic as possible."

Interviewer: "What did you see in Ben McKenzie that you thought made the perfect Bruce Wayne/Batman? Because he's an interesting choice."

Producer Bruce Timm: "Right. Well, you know we've had so many different Batmen over the years, starting with Kevin Conroy, who's awesome, and Bruce Greenwood was really awesome, and I loved Jeremy Sisto and William Baldwin. This movie needed a really specific sound to Bruce Wayne and Batman because he's young, he's only in his early 20s in this movie, so he needed to sound young, but at the same time he needed to sound like he could convincingly be this scary, badass Batman. So I remember I was watching Southland one day and I was noticing Ben McKenzie's voice and thinking, 'Oh, this guys got a really great voice, he's got a really cool presence.' So when we were throwing ideas around for who we could get to play Batman in this movie, he was one of the names that came up and he was available and, bang, there you go."

Interviewer: "I know that Christopher Nolan has his Batman movie coming out and it may be the end of that. Is there any chance that after that Warner Brothers will turn to Batman: Year One and that idea and storyline for a (live-action) feature film?"

Producer Bruce Timm: "I don't know. That's way above my pay grade. I have no idea."

Interviewer: "Batman: Year One is a very popular book with a lot of fans of Batman, how closely did you stick to the book in making this? I mean, is this pretty much just an animated depiction of that?"

Co-Director Sam Liu: "It pretty much is. In this case we were actually a little bit short, and that's the reason we had to put in that Catwoman short, because we were short, and we did pretty much everything that was in the book already and we were still short. Even though, to me, it seems like a long story, but when we actually translated it, it actually came out to be 10 or 15 minutes short, so there's a couple of things that the writer (Tab Murphy) had taken out, but we ended up adding them, but we were still short. I think that gained us 4 or 5 minutes, it was the Harvey Dent scene, originally that wasn't in the movie but now it's in the movie because we were short. So I remember we had a meeting and we asked Bruce (Timm), should we just start padding it, are there other things that we should just stick in, and Bruce was very adamant about being absolutely faithful, so we didn't tinker at all with it."

Interviewer: "I believe this is the first time Ben McKenzie's voicing Bruce Wayne. What did you see in him that you thought would make a good Bruce Wayne? I know he kind of plays a brooding character on Southland, it seems like a really good choice."

Co-Director Sam Liu: "Yeah, it's interesting with some casting because a lot of times we use people that we think that maybe they don't have a lot of experience in the voice recording booth, but it seems like they have some kind of a quality and texture to their voice, and Ben McKenzie was one of those guys, and he seemed a little nervous in the beginning but he started to loosen up towards the end, but yeah, and he was great."

Interviewer: "Can you tell use about some of the other cast members who you have voicing the iconic pages out of this book? Because fans have voices in their heads of what they sound like so that must be a challenge to bring people in that meet the fans expectations."

Co-Director Sam Liu: "Yeah, yeah, to me one of the big ones was Bryan Cranston. Me, personally, I wasn't thinking of his name, but when his name came up we all just agreed, 'Wow, I never thought about that but he'd be a perfect Gordon.' And when he came in we all just said, 'He's perfect for it.' The other really surprising one to me was Katee Sackhoff. She's got such a great texture to her voice, and when she plays Essen it's all the emotional range, and there's a little bit of grit in her voice and it just makes the scene."

Interviewer: "What is the story of the Catwoman short?"

Co-Director Sam Liu: "The short came about because we were being very faithful to the source material and there just wasn't enough, so it was a thing were we were deciding: do we pad, do we add, Bruce (Timm) didn't want that, so Paul Dini had a script about Catwoman during the shorts process so we thought, 'Oh, why don't we use that to put it in the (Batman: Year One) Universe because it has Holly in it, so that makes perfect sense, it's like a story that happens after Year One."

Interviewer: "Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale are ending their Batman after this year, is there any way that your being set up as the new Bruce Wayne, because their going to be continuing the franchise, they already said that, would you want to do live-action Batman?"

Ben McKenzie (young Bruce Wayne/Batman): "Yes, of course I would love to do that. I don't think that's grounded in any..."

Interviewer: "It's a fun rumor."

Ben McKenzie (young Bruce Wayne/Batman): "It's a fun rumor so let's start it. No, no, it was a real pleasure to have a chance to play such an iconic character, played by dozens and dozens of fantastic actors over the years in various forms, both live-action and animated, so it's intimidating, it's intimidating to get the call and be asked to do it and to not be able to say no, because of course it's such a great character and such a great graphic novel, I always loved that novel so I had to do it, and I'm really pleased how it turned out. It's a really terrific movie. I'm really happy with it, I think I did alright, I think everybody in it is terrific. I think the animation really fits the noirish kind of mood of the graphic novel, and I think the fans are going to be excited."

Interviewer: "I know everybody has had a different take on the Batman voice, especially when he puts on the cowl, how did you find the right timber that you wanted to bring to this? I know you can go deep, how deep do you go?"

Ben McKenzie (young Bruce Wayne/Batman): "Well, he's a younger Bruce Wayne. That's an important story point in the graphic novel. He's come back to Gotham to try to get some justice in a city that has become lawless, and he's trying on this alter ego, but he doesn't have it down yet. So he's still working on becoming fully confident in that role of Batman. So the timber of his voice and the pitchness is a little unsteady initially. It isn't quiet as deep as it becomes later on when he not only becomes more comfortable as Batman, but also, I think, quite frankly, he becomes comfortable in a psychotic way with being Batman, with embracing the vigilante side that perhaps we all have inside of us. We all see unjust things going on all over the world, and many of us, in some fantastical way, would like to solve those, and get some retribution. As he gets older he gets much more comfortable with it (with being Batman), but as a younger man, he's still figuring it out. So as the movie progresses you see him get more comfortable, but initially he's kind of in fits and starts."

Eliza Dushku (Selina Kyle/Catwoman): "It's (Batman: Year One is) such an iconic piece of martial, and it's (Batman material has) been through so many incarnations, there's been so many incarnations of it, and I think a lot of women I know deep down have been drawn to this Catwoman, this specifically (Batman: Year One) this is her introduction, and in this we see a side of her, and parts of her life, and parts of who she is that people maybe aren't as familiar with. And I just found that, between Andrea (voice director Andrea Romano) and her direction, it's a little different with voice-over but it's almost more specific, as far as, there's a fine line between doing the voice-over and having it be over the top or just right, and you have kind of a small space with your voice to kind of land it, and I felt like everybody, all of the other actors, Bryan (Cranston) and Ben (McKenzie) and Katee (Sackhoff), it just was beautiful. I thought it was so authentic, and I love the retro style, and it was just an honor to be a part, you know."

Interviewer for voicesfromkrypton.com: "Obviously you've already made your part in pop culture history with Buffy (the Vampire Slayer), but how does it feel to be part of this particular legacy (Batman), because the way I look at it is when somebody participates in one of these things, you now become a part of the greater whole."

Eliza Dushku (Selina Kyle/Catwoman): "It's an honor and a privilege, it's an honor and a privilege, truly."

Interviewer: "Catwoman - is there anything that you as a person can identify with this character and try to bring to it?"

Eliza Dushku (Selina Kyle/Catwoman): "Oh, yeah. I think a lot of people are familiar with my characters like Faith (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), these sort of strong and vicious but deep down very wounded women, and nothings just black and white. I think that people can identify with the characters I play because they do truly awful things but there's something inside, there's a humanity that people relate to, there's something that people connect to. It's not just good or evil, there's a lot of layers, and she's (Selina Kyle/Catwoman's) a prostitute, and she's abrasive, and she's in your face, but you look at her relationship with Holly and she has this very maternal, protective, loyal quality to her, and she wants to take the credit, she says she wants to put a scratch on his (the Roman's) face, 'Their giving the credit to Batman?!' She's a woman that wants it known that it's not just a man's world. It's not just the men who are taking care of buisness, and cleaning things up, and getting things done."

Interviewer for movieweb.com: "Now you play Sarah Essen in this movie. How did you decide on a voice for this character? It's such an iconic book that a million fans already have this voice already in their heads. What did you think you needed to do to bring it to life?"

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "Now I'm nervous. What if I didn't? What if I completely messed up?"

Interviewer: "They'll probably be picketing outside your house."

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "Their already picketing outside my house. Every time I do a job. 'Starbuck's a man.' Anyway. What was the question?"

Interviewer: "I was just wondering how you hit on the perfect voice for this or if you just used your own voice?"

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "For this I actually used my own voice because it's the closest character I've ever played to myself, minus the pilot I just did (playing deputy Victoria Moretti in Longmire). For a lot of the characters that I did, I actually changed the tone of my voice, gone down or gone up, and changed the way that I spoke. For this I really just played her as me, because she's a tough girl, but she's also sweet, and sincere, and wide-eyed, and optimistic. So I wanted to give her this child-like quality because at the same time it allows you to forgive her for what she does."

Interviewer: "You have the book. That must be a great toll to just know what to do as an actress to bring it to life, because you have it all laid out for you."

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "Yeah, that's the main thing with voice-over, you just really really want to know the script, not perfectly word for word or anything, but you want to know your moments and your beats, because it's voice-over, you can jump all around, and you don't know quit how their going to do it. I had no idea how Andrea (voice director Andrea Romano) was going to shot it, if she was just going to take dialogue from all over the place. So I just really wanted to have my moments picked and hopefully it worked. Hopefully there wont be any picketing."

Interviewer: "Did you get to work with Ben (McKenzie) at all, or was it one of those things where they stick you in a room and you don't see anybody until this products finished?"

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "Yeah, I didn't get to work with Ben (McKenzie), but the pilot I just did (Longmire) was from one of the producers of Southland (Chris Chulack), so we kind of are in the same group. I've known of Ben (McKenzie), I just kissed him on the cheek. I've wanted to do that for a long time. Right? Don't you want to do that? Just sneak attack him. He can't stop you. Especially when he's on camera because he can't be mad. Right? It's like perfect. Right?"

Interviewer: "Is there any chance you guys would be in a live-action Batman? Christopher Nolan - Their done with their thing."

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "I'd love that. That'd be amazing."

Interviewer for theflickcast.com: "This is something different for you. Everybody knows you as the kind of tough, rugged Starbuck (on Ronald D. Moore's Battlestar Galactica reboot), and now your playing the tough, rugged Detective, so..."

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "So totally different."

Interviewer: "What's it like working with the cast in the DC Universe? What's it like?"

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "I love it...I've been trying forever to get into this Batman world. I'm a huge fan of the comic books. I don't remember looking at one since I was a kid, but I was constantly stealing all of my brothers comic books when I was a kid, and it was Batman constantly. I loved all of the villains in Batman, I loved them all. So for me it was really exciting, so to be involved, it's fantastic, I'm really excited, and then to play a home wrecker is even better."

Interviewer: "Tell us about your character in the animated movie."

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "I play Detective Sarah Essen, who is a Detective in Gotham, and she comes into work with Lieutenant Gordon, and their working on trying to figure out who this vigilante is, and she finds herself in this situation were their working long hours, trying to solve this mystery, and she's actually the first one who says: 'Bruce Wayne,' because he requires money. So she actually figured it out before anyone else."

Interviewer: "Before anyone?"

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "Yes!"

Interviewer: "Wow. She solved the whole thing?"

Katee Sackhoff (Sarah Essen): "I did, I did."

http://www.movieweb.com/comic-con/2...terviews-with-katee-sackhoff-and-ben-mckenzie
http://www.voicesfromkrypton.com/2011/08/batman-year-one-chatting-catwoman-with-eliza-dushku.html
http://theflickcast.com/2011/07/23/...-talks-batman-year-one-new-riddick-film-more/

Interesting interview.

 

[biggles2000uk]

From what I read, Schumacher actually intended for it to be dark. The reason Batman Forever and B&R were so campy was because of WB.

Look at Schumacher films.

He directed "Time to Kill", "Falling Down", "Tigerland" and the very dark and gritty "8mm".

Now, if he never did "Forever" and "& Robin", fans will be looking forward to see his interpreation of Batman.

The guy can do a story, narrative and do Dark.

It was WB and the toy companies who pushed the franchise into Campness. Schumacher was just a willing participent.

 

[theMan-Bat]

Warner Brothers and McDonald's and the toy companies just wanted kid-friendly/family-friendly live-action Batman films with Robin, and to have two villains, and costumes, Bat-vehicles and gadgets that they can make toys out of, without all the killing, grotesque blood, gore and sexual elements and naughty words of Tim Burton's Batman Returns. A director could have just made the live-action films closer to Bruce Timm's Batman: The Animated Series. Pulling back on the graphic brutality of the violence and sexual elements and naughty words, so there wouldn't have been anything that would have been really upsetting to children and offensive to their parents, while retaining a serious tone, adult themes and noirish atmosphere. It was Joel Schumacher's idea to add the campy comedy, the nipples and over-sized codpieces on Batman and Robin's crotches, the gratuitous butt closeups, and exaggerated beef-cake muscles on the costumes, Robin being a 25 year old adult wearing an earring and a buzz-cut, the neon Gotham with glow in the dark Batmobiles, glow in the dark gangs, flamboyantly pink haired Riddler with a glow in the dark suit, pink painted faced Two-Face wearing a half pink suit with black zebra stripes and giggling like a clown, all the casting and directing, etc., these were all Joel Schumacher's ideas.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

Warner Brothers and McDonald's and the toy companies just wanted kid-friendly/family-friendly live-action Batman films with Robin, and to have two villains, and costumes, Bat-vehicles and gadgets that they can make toys out of, without all the killing, grotesque blood, gore and sexual elements and naughty words of Tim Burton's Batman Returns. A director could have just made the live-action films closer to Bruce Timm's Batman: The Animated Series. Pulling back on the graphic brutality of the violence and sexual elements and naughty words, so there wouldn't have been anything that would have been really upsetting to children and offensive to their parents, while retaining a serious tone, adult themes and noirish atmosphere. It was Joel Schumacher's idea to add the campy comedy, the nipples and over-sized codpieces on Batman and Robin's crotches, the gratuitous butt closeups, and exaggerated beef-cake muscles on the costumes, Robin being a 25 year old adult wearing an earring and a buzz-cut, the neon Gotham with glow in the dark Batmobiles, glow in the dark gangs, flamboyantly pink haired Riddler with a glow in the dark suit, pink painted faced Two-Face wearing a half pink suit with black zebra stripes and giggling like a clown, all the casting and directing, etc., these were all Joel Schumacher's ideas.

EXACTLY.

In this case, I blame Schumacher way more than WB. They just wanted a movie that wasn't as violent or off-putting as Returns. Schumacher came up with all the BS that brought down Forever, not WB. The original Script was pretty good too.

They just wanted a sellable Batman movie. Campy wasn't a requirement for that.

 

[theMan-Bat]

Here's more interviews, including the reveal from voice director Andrea Romano that 16 year old Liliana Mumy (The Cleaner) is underage prostitute Holly in Batman: Year One and the Catwoman short...

Interviewer Jonah Weiland: "For comic book fans Batman: Year One is quite a big deal. This is one of Frank Miller's epics being brought to the screen. When you take a big iconic story like this, one that has massive impact on the legend of Batman, does that just add the pressure?"

Co-Director Lauren Montgomery: "Well, with any iconic story, there's definitely an added element of pressure, because you know that fans are so in love with the comic, you wanna make sure you don't disappoint them with the movie, so we definitely think about that and we always want to make the fans happy. We always try to keep as much as we can from the comic, when we can keep the whole thing we definitely do it, which was luckily the case in Batman: Year One. It's such a strong source material we really didn't have to change anything to make it ready for film."

Co-Director Sam Liu: "I think that definitely the whole fan expectation was definitely a heavy shadow, but it's an expectation we're trying to provide. David Mazzucchelli is such a great artist and the way he draws it's like he did a lot of the work for us, because we could pretty much take panels from the book and they become in-betweens, and in some cases we actually did that."

Interviewer Jonah Weiland: "Actually it does have an animated style I guess you could say."

Co-Director Sam Liu: "Yeah, the storytelling, and the shots are really good, and their really strong, and iconic. Their not just these posed drawings, their moving the story forward."

Interviewer Jonah Weiland: "Sometimes when we see comic books adapted on film, they try to take an exact panel and bring it to the screen. Were you guys able to do that with this movie in terms of bringing something of David Mazzucchelli's directly from the comic into the film?"

Co-Director Lauren Montgomery: "Definitely. We tried to do it as much as we could, and luckily for us, David Mazzucchelli is such a good artist, and a good composition artist, that we were able to use a lot of his compositions in our shots. So, we really tried to make it match as much with the comic as we could so that the fans can actually look at the DVD, pause it, look at the comic and see something close to the exact same drawing just translated to the screen.
It's got it's own fair share of violence, but it's not that over-the-top. We were trying to get a more realistic feel with the violence. With Batman: Year One we were trying to make Gotham and the people in it really feel as believable as possible, so when we did have violence we tried to make sure it was closer to the realm of reality. If a guy actually gets his leg broken, then he's going to be limping on it for the rest of the show."

Co-Director Sam Liu: "She did add a Catwoman - knee to head, neck break."

Co-Director Lauren Montgomery: "I did. That was not in the comic."

Co-Director Sam Liu: "Yeah, that was not in the comic."

Co-Director Lauren Montgomery: "Some sort of head has to get twisted or cut off."

Interviewer Jonah Weiland: "I want to talk about the Catwoman short. Catwoman is a character that's really quiet beloved in comics. She's not a hero, but she's also not a villain, she's a criminal. That's what makes her very, very unique, and unfortunately at times some comic book writers have gotten her completely wrong (Will Pfeifer), some filmmakers have gotten her definitely wrong (Pitof). But at times, even with the '60s Batman show, they found a way of bringing Catwoman to the screen and making her incredibly sexy, so it's transcended generations at this point. So talk about, Lauren, bringing Catwoman to the screen in this short that you worked on with Eliza Dushku."

Co-Director Lauren Montgomery: "Well, just handling Catwoman is fun in general because handling characters that are so flexible and have such a wide range of places they can go as far as their personality, whether their heroic, or whether they have compromised morals, it makes it a lot of fun to work with her, and because she is the type of a person who's not so strict like a Superman-type character, but she's also not cruel for the sake of cruelty. She's someone who you can relate to, she's human and has human motivations. She's out for herself but she's also out for the people she cares about. So all of those things make her a really fun and interesting character to work with."

Interviewer Jonah Weiland: "How difficult was Batman: Year One to make?"

Co-Director Lauren Montgomery: "Unfortunately they don't ever get any easier. Each one is a new project and you have to put just as much hard work into it, because we don't ever want to slack off and let the quality decrees. The nice thing about the ones that are based off of really strong source content is that it does a little bit of the work for us. So in the case of Year One, we already had a really strong blueprint to follow when we were doing the storyboard, when they were writing the script, so we didn't have to come up with everything from nothing."

Co-Director Sam Liu: "Just like what Lauren was saying, I think it's much easier when you have a really strong source material, when you have a really strong script with a really good story that's really completing, it's easier to tell that story. For me, it's harder when you have a story that's not that interesting, you have to create something to try to make it interesting, we'd have to dig deeper to try to find something to really give it a purpose or give it a heart. So, (with Batman: Year One) the work was already made for us and we just had honor it and hit the strong points. We did embellish it a little bit with some of the fights that were in the comic a little bit shorter, we had to embellish it because once you get it in film and moving it's actually too short. One punch and their down."

Co-Director Lauren Montgomery: "A comic book panel of a punch, you can stare at it for as long as you want, but you put a punch on the screen and it's done in a few seconds and it's not fulfilling. You have to add more to make sure this is a viable fight. We can't have Selina get taken out by Bruce in one punch."

Co-Director Sam Liu: "The fans of Catwoman would kill us."

Eliza Dushku (Selina Kyle/Catwoman): "It's a total honor (to be Catwoman), and thank you (to voice director Andrea Romano), and we really found that kind of angry and totally disturbed young woman in that room, and I think it's a different kind of Catwoman than some people have seen or heard but it's definitely historic and it's an honor, and I think we had something kind of yummy."

Interviewer Jonah Weiland: "How is she different? How would you describe her?"

Eliza Dushku (Selina Kyle/Catwoman): "I was watching (at the premiere at the San Diego Comic-Con) and I was watching with friends and family and they go, 'Oh, you can really tell that she has trouble with men, or that she hates men,' and it goes back to her origin and we see her on the streets and in the world of the tricks and the women in the seedy side of town, but immediately we see her with Holly and she's really protective, she has definitely a maternal protection towards Holly, but she definitely does not take crap from anybody, and she wants the attention when she's done something. She's a fierce feral woman."

Interviewer Jonah Weiland: "What about Eliza struck you as the right voice for this character?"

Voice Director Andrea Romano: "Well, we were looking to work with Eliza for years, and this just worked out perfectly, and aside from the short, she's in Batman: Year One as well, and it's not only where we find Bruce Wayne becoming Batman, we also find Selina becoming Catwoman, and she is looking for credit, she says she's going to scratch the next guy (the Roman) so they know it's not Batman, they know it's her. She wants them (the news reporters) to give her credit.
There's this wonderful energy, and there's a lot of humanity in this character, between her and Holly, the young prostitute. That was always kind of a difficult thing when I was working on casting the young prostitute because I needed to hire a minor, a real kid, and I'm thinking, 'How am I gonna do this where it's not going to freak out the parents or damage the actress.' I had the good fortune of knowing Bill Mumy for many years, and his daughter Liliana is a wonderful actress, and I've known her since she was a toddler. I called up Bill and said 'I have this role, and are you okay with it?' He said 'She's the ultimate professional and there's absolutely no problem.' Their energy together, Eliza's and Liliana's together, is so sweet. So it's a very sympathetic character even though she's a hooker, and there's the whole scene with her pimp, and Selina knocks the pimp out."

http://video.comicbookresources.com/...tman-year-one/
http://video.comicbookresources.com/...tman-year-one/

On Friday, October 14 at 3:00 p.m. the New York Comic-Con will premiere the Catwoman short written by Paul Dini, directed by Lauren Montgomery, voiced by Eliza Dushku (Selina Kyle/Catwoman) and Liliana Mumy (Holly).

http://www.superherohype.com/news/ar...e-doom-at-nycc
The look of Catwoman in the short is influenced by Darwyn Cooke's designed Catwoman costume with thin ears, goggles and a front zipper showing, etc...

Bruce Timm confirmed that the Catwoman short is, "not exactly in the Year One art design style. It kind of resembles the Year One style a little bit. The design of the Catwoman costume is more based on the Darwyn Cooke design, because I love that design he did of the costume. It's (the short is) like Catwoman: Year Two or Catwoman: One Year Later."
[YT]CdJ228A61es[/YT]

 

[Secret Fawful]

So, on the clip on the front page, I pretty much think every single line delivery is terrible, especially Batman. It's "You've eaten well" not "You've eden well."

The animation looks dead too.

There's more dramatic quality in this page than there is in an ounce of that animation. I almost felt I was looking at the uncanny valley of 2d animation.

 

[theMan-Bat]

[YT]h21M8y9VjsY[/YT]
I am very impressed. He says, "You've eaten well," clearly to my ears, and I'm very relieved that we now have confirmation that he says, "From this moment on, none of you are safe," accurately, as in the comic.

And he doesn't speak the "From this moment on, none of you is safe," error that's on the back cover of the DVD.

The animation looks impressively faithful to the comic book as well and captures the dramatic quality from the page.

 

[The Caped Knight]

Ben's Batman's voice needs work, it's just not cool or intimidating .

 

[Sawyer]

So, on the clip on the front page, I pretty much think every single line delivery is terrible, especially Batman. It's "You've eaten well" not "You've eden well."

The animation looks dead too.

There's more dramatic quality in this page than there is in an ounce of that animation. I almost felt I was looking at the uncanny valley of 2d animation.

Wow. You're really reaching for something to ***** about, aren't you?

 

[theMan-Bat]

Ben's Batman's voice needs work, it's just not cool or intimidating .

It sounds appropriately creepy, intimidating, gruff, while also subtly sounding younger, inexperienced, and a little unsteady.

Ben McKenzie said, "He's still working on becoming fully confident in that role of Batman. So the timber of his voice and the pitchness is a little unsteady initially. It isn't quiet as deep as it becomes later on. So as the movie progresses you see him get more comfortable, but initially he's kind of in fits and starts."
http://www.movieweb.com/comic-con/2...terviews-with-katee-sackhoff-and-ben-mckenzie

 

[Lencho01]

It sounds appropriately intimidating, gruff, while also subtly sounding younger, inexperienced, and a little unsteady.

Ben McKenzie said, "He's still working on becoming fully confident in that role of Batman. So the timber of his voice and the pitchness is a little unsteady initially. It isn't quiet as deep as it becomes later on. So as the movie progresses you see him get more comfortable, but initially he's kind of in fits and starts."
http://www.movieweb.com/comic-con/2...terviews-with-katee-sackhoff-and-ben-mckenzie

I had a feeling that's where they were going with it.

I personally like how ghoulish he sounds.

 

[Hurm...]

I had a feeling that's where they were going with it.

I personally like how ghoulish he sounds.

Same here.

 

[antsman41]

I'm impressed...

 

[Lencho01]

Same here.

In a way, it could be seen as what Bale did with the trying to sound like some sort of beast and all.

 

[Secret Fawful]

Wow. You're really reaching for something to ***** about, aren't you?

No, I don't have to reach far with this one. The original comic had a very dramatic, dirty look, but this just looks too dead, too clean, and too digital. Instead of focusing on the lighting and the dramatics and theatricality of the scene, they're just kind of going by the numbers with it. Then again I've not come to expect a better reaction to my opinion than that from you. I'm afraid I won't back down, though, just because you're annoyed.

Excuse me if I come across as angry, but being called a ***** for my opinion tends to make me a little bit ANGRY!!!

EDIT: Now I'll admit. I AM excited for this movie. I WILL watch it. I may even enjoy it. But that doesn't mean I'll call it a good or even a great adaption. That doesn't mean I'll call it utter sh--. I just don't like the clip they showed. Fair?

 

[Sawyer]

I'm not calling you a *****. That would be excessive. I'm saying you're *****ing.