DC Comics and Warner Bros. are reportedly planning to adapt the classic Batman story The Long Halloween into a two-part animated feature film. A fantastic cast of voice actors have been tied to the project, though no casting has been officially announced at this time.
First published in 1996, with a script by Jeph Loeb and art by Tim Sale, The Long Halloween is considered by many to be one of the greatest Batman stories ever written. Set during the first two years of Bruce Wayne’s vigil as Batman, the story details how he first formed a partnership with District Attorney Harvey Dent and GCPD Captain James Gordon to fight the corruption in the local government and the Gotham mob. The story goes on to detail the rise of the first wave of supervillains who would come to dominate the city’s underworld and the fall of the Five Families who ran all the organized crime in Gotham City before them. All of this unfolds behind the mystery posed by a serial killer dubbed Holiday, who begins killing key members of the mafia on major holidays.
Revenge of the Fans reports that DC Films is in the early stages of adapting the classic story for animation and that it will see life as a two-part film. This is similar to what Warner Bros. Animation did with Batman: The Dark Knight Returns – another classic Batman story, which was made into a two-part animated movie in 2012.
The report goes on to name some of the actors who have been tied to the project and speculates who they might be cast as. Most of the actors named have previous experience working with Warner Bros. Animation on other DC Films projects, but none of them are tied to the DC Animated Cinematic Universe. This suggests that The Long Halloween will be a standalone film, like The Killing Joke and the upcoming Hush adaptation.
The most interesting name mentioned is that of Troy Baker – a veteran voice actor who has voiced both Batman and The Joker in earlier projects. Jensen Ackles – famous as Dean Winchester on Supernatural – is suggested as a natural choice for Harvey Dent. Naya Rivera from Glee is also mentioned as a possible Catwoman. The rest of the cast is rounded out by a list of all-star actors, including Titus Welliver, Jim Pirri, Katee Sackhoff, David Dastmalchian, Amy Landecker, Fred Tatasciore and Matthew Gray Gubler.
If accurate, this report suggests that DC Comics and Warner Bros are pulling out all the stops to give The Long Halloween the adaptation it deserves as one of the most beloved Batman stories of all time. It remains to be seen, however, how well the animation team will be able to mimic Tim Sale‘s distinctive style. It is also unclear how soon we might expect to see the first half of the movie, but a projected premiere date in 2020 seems likely given the full roster of animated releases DC Films already has planned for 2019.
via Screenrant