For a while now, we’ve been hearing about DC Comics adapting the best-selling ‘Batman: The Killing Joke‘ from a graphic novel into an animated feature; the word on the street was that DC was shooting for an “R” rating to most effectively match the tone of the film to that of the novel. The company has now released the first trailer for the movie, and not only is the R rating firmly in place, it appears that the production will be closely mirroring the storyline and the look of the graphic novel, which is great news for Batman fans.
‘Batman: The Killing Joke’ came out in 1988 and was pretty much instantly hailed as one of the greatest Batman stories ever told. It is universally accepted as the definitive story for the character of The Joker, the criminally insance villain and Batman’s long-time archenemy; without giving too much away, the story actually portrays The Joker as a tragic character – a family man who went through “one bad day,” as you hear him say in the trailer, that eventually drove him insane.
The events of the “The Killing Joke” are surprisingly wide-ranging in nature, for the graphic novel being a designed “one-shot” self-contained story. Although the full film version hasn’t been screened yet, it is expected to adhere closely to its printed source material. Check out the trailer below:
As “The Killing Joke” writer Alan Moore has expressed previously in interviews, the story revolves around the central idea that “Batman and The Joker are mirror images of each other,” each choosing to deal with their respective “bad days” in very different ways. The book won the Eisner Award in 1980 for Best Graphic Novel, and spent time on the New York Times Best Seller List in 2009.
The film returns Batman animated voice talent Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill as The Joker. A specific release date has not been set, but the movie is expected to be released this Summer.
Source: CinemaBlend
If Tony Schaab could be the captain of any Federation vessel, it would almost assuredly be the Enterprise-C, because who doesn’t love a good recumbent time loop? A lover of most things sci-fi and horror, Tony is an author by day and a DJ by night. Come hang out with Tony on Facebook and Twitter to hear him spew semi-funny nonsense and get your opportunity to finally put him in his place.
