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Joker Revealed For Upcoming The Dark Knight Returns

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TV Guide recently revealed the first look at the Joker and his appearance in the animated film version of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. It was also announced that Michael Emerson, most known for his role on “Lost” will be vicing the character.

The Dark Knight Returns is the upcoming animated feature based on the graphic novel. The story will be split up into two separate films with the Joker being heavily featured in the second part. Emerson commented on his role in the project, stating:

He’s one of those great villains that an actor like me likes to play because he has layers — he has a face for the world and a face for himself,” Emerson said. “He is, in a way, a villain who is a natural actor. All of that is that is delightful and confounding at the same time. It’s freeing because of the largeness of it. When he laughs, there’s nothing subdued about it. When he screams in rage, there’s nothing controlled about it. The amp is turned to 11 at all times.”

In the film, the Joker has been declared as legally sane by Dr. Wolper. He is released from his cell at Arkham Asylum and of course returns to his old ways in the wake of the return of Batman.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 will be released on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital platforms on September 25th with the second part expected to land in February of 2013. The first part is described as follows:

It’s been a decade since Bruce Wayne hung up his cape, following most of the other superheroes who had been forced into retirement. Facing the downside of middle age, a restless Bruce Wayne pacifies his frustration with race cars and liquor – but the bat still beckons as he watches his city fall prey to gangs of barbaric criminals known as The Mutants.”

Peter Weller provided the voice of Batman/Bruce Wayne and is joined by David Selby as Commissioner Gordon, Ariel Winter as Robin, Wade Williams as Two-Face and Michael McKean as Dr. Bartholomew Wolper. The film is directed by Jay Oliva, written by Bob Goodman and executive produced by Sam Register and Bruce Timm.

You can check out the previously-released trailer below:

Peter Weller To Voice Batman in Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns” Animated Series

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Warner Bros. has chosen the voice cast for its animated adaptation of Frank Miller’s 1986 Batman story The Dark Knight Returns, from Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Home Video.

Peter Weller (Robocop) will star as Batman/Bruce Wayne, and Ariel Winter (Modern Family) will voice Robin.

Bruce Timm, executive producer for DC’s animated movies, said Weller has “the proper weight to his voice. He definitely brings all of the world-weariness of the character and inner core of optimist covered in a cynical shell.”

The show’s creators are splitting the adaptation of the four-part graphic novel into two animated features called Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1 and Part 2.  The first of the two films will be released in the fall, and Part 2 will be released in early 2013. Wade Williams (Prison Break) will voice Harvey Dent/Two-Face, and Michael McKean will voice Dr. Wolper, the psychiatrist who releases the Joker from Arkham Asylum.

David Selby, who starred in the original Dark Shadows soap opera, has also joined the cast.

Jay Olivia, who storyboarded Zack Snyder’s upcoming Superman movie Man of Steel, will lead the project. Bob Goodman, a writer for Syfy’s Warehouse 13, penned the script. The graphic novel miniseries was praised for its mature and psychological take on superheroes, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

It set a violent and realistic tone in superhero comics and served as a big influence on Christopher Nolan’s Batman movie trilogy, the last of which opens July 20,” THR reported.

Read the official summary below:

“If any comic has a claim to have truly reinvigorated the genre, then The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller–known also for his excellent Sin City series and his superb rendering of the blind superhero Daredevil–is probably the top contender. Batman represented all that was wrong in comics and Miller set himself a tough task taking on the camp crusader and turning this laughable, innocuous children’s cartoon character into a hero for our times. The great Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing, the arguably peerless Watchmen) argued that only someone of Miller’s stature could have done this. Batman is a character known well beyond the confines of the comic world (as are his retinue) and so reinventing him, while keeping his limiting core essentials intact, was a huge task.Miller went far beyond the call of duty. The Dark Knight is a success on every level. Firstly it does keep the core elements of the Batman myth intact, with Robin, Alfred the butler, Commissioner Gordon, and the old roster of villains, present yet brilliantly subverted. Secondly the artwork is fantastic–detailed, sometimes claustrophobic, psychotic. Lastly it’s a great story: Gotham City is a hell on earth, street gangs roam but there are no heroes. Decay is ubiquitous. Where is a hero to save Gotham? It is 10 years since the last recorded sighting of the Batman. And things have got worse than ever. Bruce Wayne is close to being a broken man but something is keeping him sane: the need to see change and the belief that he can orchestrate some of that change. Batman is back. The Dark Knight has returned. Awesome. –Mark Thwaite”