We've discussed the new Bruce Timm BATMAN series which is currently in production somewhere on here but I couldn't find it-- I know a lot of folks are looking forward to this. Timm was one of the architects of BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES from the 90s and this fresh take owes a lot to his STRANGE DAYS short which harkens back to Batman's original mystery roots- not to be confused with the dark and gritty Batman we have now.
The show was planned to be streamed on HBO Max but not surprisingly with all that's going on with DC/Warner Bros that plan has been scrapped and the show is now looking for a home. It'll likely land somewhere, they are very far in the production process but then there's BATGIRL right? Full disclosure as much as I love the '39 Bat Man (see my avatar) this continues to fall off my radar because I just don't get excited for any new properties due to the track record of the studio system of late.
But, I know a lot of you are looking forward to it, and hopefully it finds a home.
The thread we were discussing it in a while back was the one about a t-shirt that swiped the promo image. I added a note over there, but it deserves its own thread.
I'll be disappointed if this never sees the light of day because it's the only Batman project I'm remotely interested in right now, including movies, TV shows and comics. But in fairness I was never going to shell out the funds to subscribe to HBO Max, so I don't know how much right I have to moan. Maybe they can farm it out to Amazon or Netflix as a streaming series, or even just box it all up in BluRay form if that's still a thing.
"You were right again, Batman. We might have been killed."
"Or worse. Let's go..."
This is going to be a tough one to swallow for a lot of people. As much as I personally hope that it does get shopped to another platform, being realistic this doesn't seem highly likely given that the new Discovery/Warner mission statement is to consolidate their heroes outings into blockbuster theatrical ventures. I find it hard to believe that they would choose to strike a distro deal elsewhere with one of DC/WB's biggest IP.
Well, just talked to a good friend who worked on the show-- his off the record comment was "this got cancelled for the same reasons Batgirl did". The new Discovery/Warner CEO is really looking at content-- and if he feels it's fallen off quality wise-- see the recent firings at CNN-- he is shutting it down. The friend said we all might be disappointed but he thinks the backlash to it would have been extremely negative. As I said in my first reporting of this, Hollywood is churning out junk, and I for one am glad someone of power is recognizing bad for what it is.
I truly value Bruce Timm's contributions to the Batman universe—BTAS is a longstandinging favorite, and the shadings he and Paul Dini added to characters like Mr. Freeze and Two-Face are as good as any versions of those characters ever, IMHO. Harley Quinn as originally conceived was a great character, too, but she's become emblematic to me of all that's wrong with the DC-Warners approach to films for "grown-ups."
I'd like to see what the new animated series is about, but my faith in Timm's vision was sorely tested by the Batman-Harley Quinn home video he co-directed a few years ago. Its raunchy humor and "adult" situations were really misguided, and ultimately caused me to eject the Blu-Ray without watching the end of the story. If we're being deprived a classic, that'd be tragic, but if Andy's sources are right and they're killing more junk, I'm OK with that.
Timm was also a producer on the "Killing Joke" animated film which I found offensive in the extreme, so maybe he's just passed his sell-by date. Maybe it's better in the long run if he doesn't tarnish his rep with another stinker, especially if it bears a stylistic resemblance to the otherwise revered B:TAS.
Assuming this new boss is actually any judge of quality, it could be a good thing to finally have someone at Warner who actually has standards. The DCEU is an absolute train wreck so far. I finally got to see "The Suicide Squad," one of the better-received entries, and found it repulsive as well. Not incompetent, just childishly vulgar in a "Look we can do Deadpool, too!" kind of way.
"You were right again, Batman. We might have been killed."
"Or worse. Let's go..."
Just in today via Deadline, in the reshuffle over at WB/DC Films, James Gunn has helped facilitate a distribution deal for Bruce Timm's new Caped Crusader show to stream over on Amazon Prime. It's pretty wild as this kind of cross-market deal wasn't even imaginable twelve months ago. But things change and hopefully for the best in the case of this new animated show.
Yeah, I have Prime. Love to have it on Blu-Ray. The promise of all these paid channels has not met with the reality due to legal agreements, etc. the promise is you can watch anything you want at anytime with a subscription. But I digress.
This show looks really cool; camp factor zero. More detective work, learning experiences, relationship development and loss.
