The premiere in New York took place last night.
David Selby (Commissioner Gordon) was the only star of the film to attend the New York premiere. Peter Weller (Batman), currently filming J. J. Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness, and Ariel Winter (Robin/Carrie Kelley), currently filming Rob Minkoff's Mr. Peabody & Sherman, are scheduled to attend the Los Angeles premiere on Monday, September 24th.
Here are reports from New York by Alex Zalben for MTV...
On The Red Carpet With Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Part 1
Posted 2 hours ago by Alex Zalben:
First up we chatted with Director Jay Oliva. Dark Knight Returns holds a special place in Oliva's heart. "I was eleven when it came out, so this was my introduction to the more modern Batman," Oliva told us excitedly. "I had watched Super Friends and the Adam West Batman, so when I read The Dark Knight Returns, it totally changed my view of who Batman was. It's been a lifelong dream of mine to bring justice to what Frank Miller had done in the original graphic novel."
"There were moments in the book as a kid I had filled in, but when I looked at it again, there were a lot of things I hadn't noticed," said Oliva. "For me, it was trying to find what I saw as an eleven year old child, and as an adult now, and a filmmaker... Trying to bring my sensibility to it, after working on so many other films in the past."
"Sometimes we'd add things, or extend scenes for the emotional impact. In the graphic novel, you get to stare at a panel and take it all in. With film, you only get a small window for that... So I had to make sure I had enough time to get that emotion across, while still staying true to the source material."
There's one image in particular that Oliva made sure to add in: the iconic image of Batman jumping in front of lightning. "That's never in the comic, it's only on the cover!" said Oliva. "I remember when we were storyboarding, I said we need to have this somewhere in the film. We found a moment right when it's his rebirth, his reveal for the audience."
Jumping forward quite a bit, we asked whether Oliva would want to take on the notorious sequel to Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller's Dark Knight Strikes Again. Oliva paused for a moment, before saying, "I don't know! They've got a few other titles that we might end up doing. Strikes Again, it would be a lot harder to adapt just because of all the things that are in it. Wait until you see Part 2 (of Returns). Part 2 is amazing, we've already finished it, and it's probably... It's a topper to Part 1, and probably the best work I've ever done."
Then it was over to Commissioner Gordon. For the voice, David Selby didn't change much, stating that he essentially played himself in the movie. When it came down to it, though, it was the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Gordon that gave Selby his character. "I love the friendship between the two," said Selby. "I love that he never compromised back then. I love that kind of guy to guy, man to man relationship that they had."
Interestingly enough, there's a strong connection to the legend of Batman that got Selby started. "I wanted to be Zorro!" Selby told us. "I wanted to be Errol Flynn, with the sword in my hand... And instead I got to be Commissioner Gordon!"
And last but certainly not least, we had a very brief moment to chat with vocal director Andrea Romano about working on the movie. We asked her what makes working on something that's a direct adaptation to the Dark Knight Returns comic different from a non-adapted project. "I could practically use the graphic novel as a storyboard," said Romano. "I could literally go to the actors and show them a page or panel, and say, this is what we're doing. And they could go, 'Oh, I can do that!' So that makes a big difference, because actors respond very well to visual stimulation. This is an easy thing to direct, because it's all there on the page!"
Event Recap: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Part 1 Premieres In New York City
Posted 4 hours ago by Alex Zalben:
After host Gary Miereanu welcomed the crowd, mentioning that over 2,500 people applied for 280 seats available, we got right into the movie! We’ll have a full review up soon, but the big takeaway is that the crowd went nuts. Huge laughs, thunderous applause, and shocked gasps.
As the end credits rolled, and after the rapturous applause died down, the Q&A portion began, featuring Director Jay Oliva, Casting/Voice Director Andrea Romano, and David Selby (70 year old Commissioner Gordon), with Miereanu moderating.
Miereanu kicked things off asking whether it was tough to take on a seminal graphic novel like this. “Hell yes, of course it was intimidating!” said Oliva with a laugh. “It totally changed the way I looked at Batman... I didn’t want to do a motion comic. I wanted to make it a close to a movie as we could, but also stay close to Frank Miller’s intent.”
Asked about favorite moments, Romano mentioned the image of a moth to a flame early in the movie. “It has no dialogue!” said Romano to laughter, “But I love that image.” Oliva mentioned a moment late in the film, where Robin accepts her destiny, while Selby just felt “wowed by the whole thing, seeing it on the big screen like this!”
David Selby added that a monologue late in the film from Commissioner Gordon about Teddy Roosevelt, to him, was the moral of the story.
Next, Miereanu asked about surprising moments, seeing the movie with a live audience for the first time. “Not surprised, but pleased me, which is that they had the same reaction I did,” said Romano. “Which was YEEEEEES!” After laughter died down, Oliva said he felt it was tough to divorce from having seen the film a ton of times in the editing process. However, he did note the flashback sequences to Bruce’s childhood, which he wanted to be like “post-traumatic stress syndrome,” worked surprisingly well.
Additionally, not to get into spoilers for a new sequence, but Oliva added a bit after Wayne fights the Mutant Leader the first time, a Kubrick style sequence which he put in to give symmetry to the initial scenes of Batman’s origin.
Then Romano commented on the gigantic cast, which had thirty-three voice actors, some who do at least three voices each. “I had to look how I could get through this,” said Romano. “So I went to my friends! You’ll notice Pinky and the Brain in there... I cast my friend Rob Paulson (voice of Pinky on Pinky and the Brain (1995-1998)) as Rob!” Romano followed this up by reading the entire voice cast, with comments, to much laughter from the audience. She even cast herself, saying a key line of, “No! Don’t! Ah!”
Oliva added that as a fan he freaked out during the process because he’d come into the recording booth and, “Pinky (Rob Paulsen) and the Brain (Maurice LaMarche, voice of Brain on Pinky and the Brain (1995-1998)) would be in there with Mrs. Krabappel (Marcia Wallace, voice of Mrs. Krabappel on The Simpsons (since 1990))!” For Selby, his geek moment came courtesy of his son, who still has his comics stored at his parent’s house. In fact, the first three books in his collection were all original copies of the original four issues of the Dark Knight series!
Then it was open to questions from the fans! First one was from the notorious Spidey616 himself, who asked about whether the classic episode of Batman: The Animated Series, "Legends of the Dark Knight" (1998), influenced her decisions on this movie. “Since I have no memory, they did not influence each other at all!” said Romano with a laugh, adding that the joy of having no memory is being able to hide your own Easter Eggs.
The next question was how the two directors work together. Voice director Romano said that Oliva would attend every recording session, which was helpful... Particularly as what the actors would develop in the voicing sessions would sometimes change what happened - or was planned visually. Oliva on the other hand lauded Romano’s preparation. “I’ll look down at her script and there’s notes everywhere... And I’ll look at my script, and there’s no notes! I turn to Andrea, and say... That sounds great to me!” said Oliva to laughter. “What’s great about the actors is they always focus on one part. I’m thinking about the fight sequences, and the pacing... My view is more broad strokes.”
Then a fan asked about input from Frank Miller, if he’s weighed in on the movie. “He’s had a copy delivered to him... He’s good friends with Peter Weller, and we expect good things. You’ll hear from him eventually,” said Miereanu, to laughs from the audience.
The next question was about why Kevin Conroy wasn't cast. Romano brought up Kevin Conroy’s Batman Beyond (1999-2001), noting that Dark Knight Returns has shades of the show, but added that, “The decision was made way above me, they wanted the style to be different, the talent to be different. But Peter Weller sounds like he’s had so much life experience. He’s world weary, and that works very well for this character.” Oliva noted that there were actually scenes in Robocop - which of course featured Peter Weller - that were taken directly from Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns. “It’s almost like full circle,” said Oliva.
Oliva then talked about the themes together - and differences - of Part 1 and 2. He cited the theme of water, including Batman’s return happening in rain as a kind of baptism, as something that will run throughout. Conversely, red denotes the traumatic event of the Wayne’s murder. He added there’s an easter egg in the scene: little Bruce’s shadow as he craddles his dead parents is a Batman cape. He also added that for him, the main theme is that, “one man
can make a difference. In Part 2, we see the repercussions of that.”
And that was it for the Q&A portion, and the event! There had been a tease at the beginning that we MIGHT be able to see the trailer for Part 2, but perhaps time ran out? Regardless, Miereanu promised that the premiere for Part 2 would be right back at The Paley Center in New York City, next year. We’ll see you then!
http://geek-news.mtv.com/?p=88962
http://geek-news.mtv.com/2012/09/21/batman-the-dark-knight-returns-part-1-premiere-paley-center-nyc/
Alan Kistler for Comic Book Resources...
ROMANO, OLIVA & SELBY DEBUT BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS - PART 1
Monday, September 24th, 2012
"I feel like I've been welcomed into a whole new family," David Selby remarked. "Gordon is such a fine moral character. He's a good man, but he's also a tough cop. He has to be, Gotham's a tough town."
"There are thirty-three actors in this piece," Andrea Romano said with pride. "Probably thirty of them are doing three voices at least. It was a huge project but we didn't want to cut any characters if we didn't have to."
"Why can't there be a three hour DVD?" Andrea Romano asked with a nod. "It would be so great! But 70 minutes is the industry norm. I don't know why it can't be longer -- there are so many things I would've like to see expanded. But it does tease nicely."
"I wanted to make it as close to the source material as possible, but I didn't want to make it a motion comic," Oliva said. "It's a movie and it should be experienced as a movie, not as if Frank Miller is just reading the story to you. And you don't want to try and make the book obsolete. The way the panels and pacing are is genius and you can't do that directly in a film. You only have one second or two seconds across, so I try to get all the beats there and move the story along organically. Bob Goodman, who wrote the screenplay, did an amazing job. You get a good story here, and then you can read the graphic novels to get more of Batman's inner monologue."
"I've cast Batman so many times now, and it was hard enough the first time," Romano said. "I'm the biggest Kevin Conroy fan. But I'm offered the job because I'm a freelance director and I have the option to say yes or no. Because it's an older Batman (like in Batman Beyond (1999-2001)) and I like the story so much, I said yes, and my first words after that were, 'Can I use Kevin Conroy?' Sometimes they say yes, sometimes they say no. This time they said no, they wanted a fresh cast. But Peter Weller is a great Batman. He does a great job and he has a weight to his voice that just lets you know he's had a life. He's seen things."
"I added more flashbacks -- to be more like post traumatic syndrome," Oliva said. "The way Bruce Wayne copes with his parents' death, he became Batman. By kicking ass and taking names, he became normal in a sense. But the past ten years since he stopped … it keeps getting worse and worse."
"I don't know that Batman, of all the superheroes in the DC Comics world, is one that's always going to be kid friendly," Romano said. "He is so dark and so many of his dark stories are so interesting. There's a PG-13 rating with this one. I think it's up to the parents to decide, 'Is this something I can watch with my kid, or is this something where I should wait until my kid is 13?' It is dark. So was 'Under the Red Hood.' But they're such great stories."
"It's a PG-13 film, I'm not making this for kids," Oliva added. "I'm making this for people who are fans of Batman first. I'm not going to go overly violent just for violence's sake, but I want to stay true to the source material. I think the violence is tastefully done."
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=41167
. Miereanu then asked Oliva if there was anything he felt was left out or was missing, which led to Oliva expanding on his thinking behind some of the changes made to the movie, especially his take on the flashbacks that are a prominent part of the comic, which he tried to handle like a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder in Bruce Wayne. One big addition to the movie is a very “(Stanley) Kubrick-kind of weird thing” flashback scene to the Wayne parents’ funeral, which served to emphasize the emotional impact of his loss to the Mutant leader; like many of Kubrick’s indelible scenes, Oliva tried making it ambiguous enough that its meaning is open to interpretation.
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