The DC animated universe is fantastic. Bruce Timm has been masterminding gold standard animation for nearly two decades, and his crew is finally taking on one of the most important Batman stories ever told, Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns.

This epic two-part animated event has already been officially announced, but The Hollywood Reporter has announced the principle voice cast:

Peter Weller (Robocop) will star as Batman/Bruce Wayne and Modern Family’s middle child Ariel Winter will play Robin… Also in the cast are David Selby, the veteran actor who starred in the original Dark Shadows soap opera as well as the classic 1980s soap Falcon Crest; Wade Williams (Prison Break) as Harvey Dent/Two-Face; and Michael McKean as Dr. Wolper, the psychiatrist who releases the Joker from the insane asylum.

Fan favorite Michael Ironside played the role in a classic episode of Batman: The Animated Series that payed homage to the seminal story. While it would have been nice symmetry to have him back, Peter Weller is an amazing choice for the role.

The story is being split into two animated features, the first of which will be hitting shelves later this year, followed by the second part in early 2013.

It has been confirmed that Rodrigo Santoro will reprise his role as Xerxes in 300: Battle of Artemisia. Santoro will join Eva Green (Casino Royale) as Artemisia, Sullivan Stapleton (Darkness Falls) as Themistocles, and Jamie Blackley (Snow White and The Huntsman) as Calisto.

The story is rumored to be a sort-of-sequel which will follow Xerxes (Santoro) is pushed into the bloody battle with the Greeks by the gold-covered maven goddess Artemisia (Green). Artemisia utilizes her knowledge of how much Xerxes’ father King Darius’s death has affected him, persuades Xerxes to go into battle against those responsible. Artemisia also searches for  group of men to join Xerxes in the battle against the Greeks.

She manages to use her feminine wiles to convince Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton) to side with her and Xerxes, even though the Persians took her family and he was firmly on the side of the Greeks. Ultimately, she convinces him that his life will be better off if he swaps sides. Themistocles’ skills as a fighter are only rivaled by his ability for deception and lies.

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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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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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DC Entertainment has been losing ground to Marvel at the multiplex over the last few years, but during that same time their animated movie department has reigned as undisputed king. Bruce Timm started crafting animated DC stories with Batman: The Animated Series in the early 90s, and has been virtually flawless ever since.

Now Bleeding Cool is reporting that the seminal comic ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ is going to be given it’s time to shine as an animated epic.

Bleeding Cool have heard from multiple sources (enough with the multiples already) that work is underway on a movie adaptation of Frank Miller and Klaus Janson’s classic The Dark Knight Returns. As you might have guessed, however, this is to be an animated adaptation, much like the recent All Star Superman or in-the-works Year One.

This won’t be the first time Frank Miller’s ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ has been animated. The classic Batman: The Animated Series episode Legends of the Dark Knight, where different era’s of Batman were lovingly homaged, including a segment modeled after ‘The Dark Knight Returns.’

Batman regular Kevin Conroy has had time to age into a great voice for this role. So hopefully the trend of keeping actors from the original series carries forward into this project.

Welcome to the first edition of The Pull List Comic Reviews for 2010! This week both Blackest Night and Siege took center stage with numerous titles, but don’t worry as the Caped Crusader and the Wall Crawler make appearances, too. As always, WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

PULL OF THE WEEK:

Blackest Night #6 [of 8]
DC Comics – $3.99 US
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Ivan Reis
Score: 9/10

When we last saw our heroes, well… let’s just say that some of them were no longer heroes. As black rings zoomed towards the Flash and Green Lantern, their friends and allies who had suddenly switched sides surrounded them. Superman. Wonder Woman. Green Arrow. And so on. With the universe slipping precariously into a never-ending pool of black, a new group of Lanterns have risen to the cause, and you won’t believe your eyes when you see who they are.

I’m starting to think that Geoff Johns should have been a major league pitcher as opposed to a writer, just with the sheer number of curve balls he’s thrown at readers throughout this series so far. Clearly outdoing himself, Johns put together a new group of Lanterns consisting of some of the most inspiring choices to date. The story beats keep pumping along, making the rapidly approaching ending all the more bittersweet.

Artist Ivan Reis continues to weave his magic in this series. Classic speedster moments? Check. Glorious double-page spreads? You bet. Jaw-dropping panels for significant moments? Of course! All this, and a slew of costume re-designs for the new Lanterns, just in case you didn’t know that Reis is drawing at a level that’s almost peerless. The art in this issue, and the series overall, can be summed up in one word: unparalleled.

The fifth installment of this mini-series received a Pull of the Week and a spot on the Best of 2009 list, so I wasn’t expecting an encore performance with this latest chapter. Shame on me. Both Johns and Reis raise the bar once again, and let the record show that, if this upward trend continues, I might not survive the series in its entirety. For sheer comic brilliance – and Lex Luthor! – this was easily the Pull of the Week.

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300, one of the biggest hits of 2007, directed by Zack Snyder and based off the comic book mini-series by Frank Miller (The Spirit, Sin City the movie and comic series), is now supposedly getting a prequel. For the prequel, the story is set in time to see the battle of Marathon – which took place ten years before the events of 300.

During the battle, Xerxes’ father, Darius I, battled the Athenians. I believe this is passingly mentioned in a mocking tone in 300, when Leonidas denies acquiescing to Xerxes’ messengers, before kicking them down a giant hole in the middle of town.

Miller, who will again be writing and drawing the comic series before it’s taken to the big screen, has said to the LA Times, “It’s the Battle of Marathon through my lens” and that he’s just about ready to begin. Of course, the interesting thing about 300, and some might say the frightening thing about this new story; is the level of fact and stylization Miller had put into his original story.

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For those of you who don’t know who Grant Morrison is you’re likely to be made aware of him soon.  The groundbreaking comic book writer behind such legendary runs on X-Men, Animal Man, and Doom Patrol is getting his own biopic, and the director of that movie, Patrick Meaney, is profiled over at Wired.

In the profile, Meaney says Morrison is about to become one of those creators that will receive mainstream recognition that only creators such as Alan Moore and Frank Miller have enjoyed.

“Most ‘civilians’ that I talk to about the project still don’t know who Grant Morrison is,” Meaney said in the interview, “but Moore is definitely a name they recognize, as is Frank Miller. I feel like we could soon be seeing a bunch of Morrison film projects in the not-too-distant future.”

Currently in-development is Morrison’s work WE3, which is a favorite among many of us Morrison fans. The story involves pets enhanced with cybernetic weaponry to become assassins who rebel against their programming and their creators. The project is currently being handled by Kung Fu Panda director John Stevenson.

Morrison’s sensibilities lends well to the screen, however, his ideas are far left of Richard Kelly-weird so I’m not sure how well they are likely to be received by the bigwigs in Hollywood, or by audience members for that matter.  But I applaud any would-be producer in developing an idea of Morrison’s, it shows a willingness to take chances and I appreciate that. But if WE3 gets a true to form adaptation for the screen, I would suspect many parent’s groups raising holy hell over it.

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Happy Wednesday! This week there is a great mix and mash of comics, and we hope you’ll at least give a look at a few of these. First off: ever wonder what it would be like if the writer/artist of The Dark Knight Returns teams with the artist of Watchmen? Now you’ll know this week as Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons team up for The Life and Times of Martha Washington in the 21st century. The thing is PRICEY though, so at keep an eye out for a cheaper version when it hits stands.

From DC Comics this week, we have Philip Tan replacing Frank Quitely on Batman and Robin. Its worth getting to see the difference. There’s a Quitely cover at least. The good news is that Grant Morrison’s collaborator on Seaguy Cameron Stewart will be joining the team following Tan. Fortunately, Quitely is staying on as the cover artist, and every week he turns in a new cover I can’t help but make that my computer background. Just look at that sucker.

Also, from DC is Blackest Night #3, this juicy and horrific tale is crazy weird.  Almost Howling or Piranha-like but in comics. Not cheesy horror, but outlandish horror.

The final five issues of Brian K. Vaughan’s brilliant Ex Machina series starts this week and I kinda feel like I did when Y: The Last Man was ending. Something really special is ending and we’re never going to see it again.  Well, that’s a mixed bag. Though we’re going to have movie versions of these comics I just mentioned, Vaughan is slipping away from comics. With his Roundtable script being on this year’s Black List and selling that script for six figures, plus leaving the Lost writer’s room, I can only imagine that hopefully this means more comics for Vaughan but I fear that’s probably not the case.

From Marvel, the only thing really worth it is Ed Brubaker’s Captain America Reborn. What I like about Ed Brubaker is that while he’s a slow burn and you have to be ultra committed to sticking with him, and this book’s case it is painfully so, its always worth it in the end.  Its time to move the story forward, we get Captain America is Quantum Leaping through his life, now lets move forward from that.

As always, we here at The Flickcast care about what you read, so leave us a comment and let us know what you liked/didn’t like from this week’s comics. For a more complete list of what comes out this week, Midtown Comics has a great listing of everything.

For the past four years, Spike TV has been on the map of cable TV award shows with their annual Scream Awards, giving notice to genres and categories that all other award shows overlook. From comic books to horror films, the Scream Awards have made basic cable award shows fun for the rest of us.

The network just released their list of nominees for this year’s show, which have been chosen by their Advisory Board of Hollywood and Genre Leaders. On the board are known genre names such as Tim Burton, Wes Craven, Roland Emmerich, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Eli Roth, Zack Snyder, and more.

The voting begins today at Scream.Spike.com so check out the list after the jump. Be sure to tune into Spike TV on Tuesday, October 27 (10 PM-Midnight ET/PT) for the 2009 Scream Awards.

THE ULTIMATE SCREAM
-“Drag Me to Hell”
-“Let the Right One In”
-“Star Trek”
-“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
-“Twilight”
-“Up”

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