I haven’t found Alan Moore’s reaction to Batman: The Killing Joke being made into an animated feature, but given his previous reactions to cinematic adaptations of his creations I doubt he’s very excited at the prospect. I’m a fan of Moore’s and I’ve enjoyed some of the adaptations of his work more than others. I’m more optimistic about this project than I was about Batman v Superman, and given that flick’s wipeout status the Dark Knight could use a win right about now.
In addition to Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight, The Killing Joke has had a massive impact on our contemporary conception of Gotham’s greatest crime fighter, and especially on the image of the Joker — Tim Burton, Christopher Nolan and Heath Ledger all cite the influence of the book. Without giving too much away here’s what happens in The Killing Joke: Commissioner Gordon is tortured, Batgirl is crippled, and Batman is shown to be nearly just as, well, bat-shit-crazy as the Joker. Moore intended to show Batman and his greatest nemesis as two sides of the same coin. In the process he gave us one of the most iconic and brutal Batman stories of all time.
Over the weekend the makers of the new Killing Joke film leaked a preview of their feature online. If you didn’t know, this is the same team behind the universally celebrated Batman:The Animated Series. They tell a little bit about themselves and The Killing Joke comic before revealing a prologue they’ve added to their movie version of the story as well as some very familiar faces behind their characters…
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