Warner Bros highly acclaimed animated adaptation of Batman: Year One is celebrating its 10th anniversary and the movie is getting a 4K UHD special commemorative release for the occasion. The story of Batman: Year One is quite relevant at the moment, with Matt Reeves’ upcoming The Batman seeming to take a number of cues from the Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli tale of a young Bruce Wayne taking his first steps as the Dark Knight of Gotham, so there was no way that Warner Bros were going to miss out on the opportunity to make a song and dance about it.
The new edition of the movie will feature a remastered version of the film as well as a brand new bonus feature called Reinventing Gordon. Also included is “DC Universe Movies Flashback”, which takes a look at some of the other animated Batman movies to have been released, namely Soul of the Dragon and The Long Halloween Parts One and Two. The release will be available on both digital and disc from November 9th.
There are a lot of connections to be made between the movie and the upcoming slate of Batman material, but the new featurette focussing on Commissioner Gordon is actually the thing that binds them all. Ben McKenzie, who played Gordon in the TV series Gotham, actually voiced Bruce Wayne in Batman: Year One, while Jeffrey Wright will be taking over the role for Matt Reeves’ movie and also the TV spin off, Gotham PD. Additionally, the Gordon family will be at the heart of the new Batgirl movie on HBO Max, which stars Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon, Jim Gordon’s daughter.
With the release of the commemorative edition coming just after DC FanDome, it has already been announced that there will be a sneak peek of this new featurette at the event, and based on that it is expected that you cannot really preview something that is very short, which means that the new material could well be a substantial length for an additional featurette.
Warner Bros official synopsis of Batman: Year One reads: “Originally released on Blu-ray and DVD in 2011, Batman: Year One is based on the landmark 1987 DC titles from 12-time Eisner Award winner and Eisner Award Hall of Fame member 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 Super Hero. 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 City.”
As well as Ben McKenzie as Bruce Wayne, the all star cast includes Bryan Cranston as Jim Gordon, Eliza Dushku as Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Alex Rocco as Carmine Falcone and Kate Sackhoff as Detective Sarah Essen, with additional voices provided by Jon Polito, Jeff Bennett, Grey Griffin, Robin Atkin Downes, Keith Ferguson, Fred Tatasciore, Stephen Root, Liliana Mumy and Nick Jameson.