We love how Batman and Bruce Wayne have been portrayed over the years. Whether it’s whimsical and lighthearted as played by Adam West and Diedrich Bader, or dark and mysterious as played by Kevin Conroy and Christian Bale.

Now we’re getting an interesting look for the first time, as Ben McKenzie portrays Bruce Wayne as a pompous, young playboy. At least that’s what we’re getting in this brand new clip from Warner Home Video’s Batman: Year One.

Taken straight from Frank Miller’s Year One story arc from 1987 in which we follow the years from when Bruce Wayne donned the cape and cowl and decided to fight crime. Here, we get a far less confident and mysterious Bruce Wayne, and much more of the billionaire playboy philanthropist that we never got to see.

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Warner Home Video seems to be an unstoppable juggernaut of quality animated content over the past few years. From getting their start with Justice League Unlimited to continuing in the trend with several major DVD and Blu-Ray releases a year featuring some of our favorite DC characters, there doesn’t seem to be a stop to how good these animated adaptations can get.

And the hits keep coming this month, as they release an adaptation of Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One comic in a feature-length film. You can expect this one to get pretty gritty, considering the source material, as well as some of the huge names they have for the cast.

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.

Check out the exclusive clip, as well as how to get your hand on the film early after the jump.

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We’ve already brought you the first stills and first trailer from Warner Premiere’s upcoming animated film Batman: Year One. Now, we’re pleased to be able to bring you the first full clip from the movie for your animated Batman enjoyment.

In the clip, we get further evidence that even though this doesn’t have the big budget of the next Chris Nolan Batman, Warner is still taking this very seriously. In short, it looks pretty awesome.

Here’s the scoop on the film:

Batman: Year One is based on the 1987 comic from 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.

Like I said, awesome. Adding to that awesome even more is the great cast assembled to do the voices for the film, which includes Bryan Cranston (Gordon), Ben McKenzie (Bruce Wayne/Batman), Eliza Dushku (Catwoman) and Katee Sackhoff (Detective Essen). The film arrives October 18 on Blu-ray, On Demand and for Download.

Check out the scene after the break.

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From kicking it in The O.C. for 4 years to saving lives for the past few years in Southland, Ben McKenzie has managed to carry a pretty big fan base with him from project to project. Now he’ll be switching gears entirely to the animated DC Universe, as he voices a young and cocky Bruce Wayne in the upcoming animated film Batman: Year One.

Based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller, the story was basically Batman Begins from when Bruce left Wayne Enterprises to when he donned the cowl. Traveling, learning his trade, and figuring out what it took to take out the crime in Gotham City, that’s what McKenzie has to tackle in this performance of the Dark Knight.

We got the chance to talk with Ben in San Diego about taking on this massive role, to his process when coming to a character that has been voiced and portrayed by dozens of award-winning actors.

Check out what Ben had to say about his upcoming role, and check out our interviews with Katee Sackhoff and Eliza Dushku about their roles in Batman: Year One, which hits shelves on October 18th.

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While yesterday we brought you one of the big names on the female side of the cast for the upcoming animated Batman: Year One film with Katee Sackhoff. That’s only one half of the female firepower that film is bringing to the table, as they also managed to cast Dollhouse star Eliza Dushku as Selena Kyle aka Catwoman.

We got a chance to speak with Eliza about her role, how she managed to return to also voice Catwoman in the DC Original Short, and what she’s currently working on.

Best known for her work with Joss Whedon in both the Buffy universe as well as the star of his most recent TV project, Dollhouse, Eliza has managed to portray the “hot badass” archetype for nearly a decade now. Things are changing only slightly as she’s turning in her Doll clothes and vampire stake for a leather catsuit and whip (animated, of course).

Aside from working constantly working in front of the camera, Eliza is also working as a producer for a few upcoming projects including one for the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

Take a look at what Eliza had to say in our exclusive interview after the jump, and be sure to grab Batman: Year One when it hits shelves on October 18th.

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The term “geek girl” gets thrown around a lot these days. Some of it referrs to those girls who eat, sleep, and breathe all-things geeky, and also to those who’ve developed the geek credibility to earn such a title.

Katee Sackhoff pretty much qualifies for both of those, having played Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica, which is more than enough to put her on the top of any male fan’s “goddess” list at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.

Well it looks like things are getting even better for Sackhoff, as she’s also voicing Detective Sarah Essen, the tough cop who works with Commissioner Gordon back when he was a young punk. Sure Sackhoff carries her tough demeanor over to this role, but she also shows a bit of a softer side, as well.

Not only has Sackhoff worked in both the DC Universe as well as the BSG universe, but it seems that she’ll also be working in the world of Riddick in the upcoming new sequel to the franchise.

She was a bit tightlipped about the role, but we managed to get some words out of her regarding her new projects. Take a look at the interview below and be sure to grab Batman: Year One on DVD and Blu-ray on October 18th.

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For those of you anxiously awaiting the return of Batman to the big screen with Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, this may just help you get through the months, weeks, days and hours until that happens. Over at MTV’s Splashpage, they’ve got a trailer for the upcoming animated feature Batman: Year One, the next installment in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series.

In case you’re not familiar with the story, Batman: Year One the movie is based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller and focuses mostly on Bruce Wayne’s emergence as Batman. However, it also included many other great characters as well such as eventual commissioner Jim Gordon, his partner Sarah Essen, and the mysterious Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman).

Batman: Year One features Benjamin McKenzie as Bruce Wayne, Bryan Cranston as Jim Gordon, Eliza Dushku as Catwoman and Katee Sackhoff as Sarah Essen. It will be available October 18 on Blu-ray, DVD, OnDemand and via download. Also, if you happen to be going to Comic-Con in two weeks, the film will have its world premiere on Friday, July 22 at 8PM in Ballroom 20, followed by a panel discussion with cast and crew.

Click though to check out the trailer after the break.

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Warner Premiere has been on a roll lately in both the animated world and the live action one. Their newest live action webseries, Mortal Kombat: Legacy has blown up online, and their continuing success with animated films for the DC Universe have put them on top of the map for both genres.

Continuing in that trend, their newest film, Batman: Year One has got some brand new images, and they give us a hint at what we can expect from the film. Here’s the breakdown of the all-star cast from THR.

Bryan Cranston, Ben McKenzie, Eliza Dushku and Katee Sackhoff have been tapped to star as the voices in Batman: Year One, the adaptation of the Frank Miller comic book classic from Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation.

Cranston is playing Gordon, while McKenzie is Wayne/Batman. Dushku voices Catwoman, while Sackhoff is Detective Sarah Essen, a Gordon love interest.

The animated feature is based on the 1987 miniseries written by Frank Miller and drawn by David Mazzucchelli, about the time between Bruce Wayne seeing his parents murdered and becoming the caped avenger that we all know and love today.

The flick is expected to hit DVD and Blu-Ray players everywhere later this year. In the meantime, check out two brand new images from the film.

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This week may mark the time when fanboys and fangirls recover from last week’s Comic-Con, but it also marks a pretty big week for fans of DC Studios, and more specifically, their animated DVD division. On Tuesday, the studio released their next film in the continuing direct-to-DVD film series in an adaptation of Judd Winick’s Batman: Under The Red Hood.

Much like many of the other DC animated films, this story follows very close to the source material, with a few tweaks to allow a 70 minute film to flow nicely. That also means that this is one of the darkest films that the studio has done to date, with plenty of death and violence. The film is definitely a must for any fan of the franchise or comics in general.

We got a chance to speak with DC Animation guru and producer of the film Bruce Timm about this and a few upcoming projects including All-Star Superman, Batman: Year One, and Green Lantern: Emerald Knights. Also, we spoke with voice director Andrea Romano about casting Bruce Greenwood as this film’s Batman and Futurama’s John DiMaggio as The Joker.

Check out the full interview after the jump, and keep it here all week for more interviews with the cast of Batman: Under The Red Hood.

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