Huge news from DC Studios at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival today. Co-chairs Peter Safran and James Gunn landed in France to announce a wave of new animated projects to be created in partnership with the team at Warner Bros. Animation.
Top of the list of projects is an animated series based on Absolute Batman, the best-selling comic book from writer Scott Snyder and artist Nick Dragotta. Snyder will serve as executive producer and showrunner on the show while Dragotta is on board as a producer.
Reinventing the Batman myth for a new generation of fans, Absolute Batman reimagines the Dark Knight as a working-class hero up against impossible odds on a mission to prove that even in an era of wealth, power and corruption, one good person can change the world.
The first issue of Absolute Batman continues to be an all-time seller for DC and is currently on its 11th printing. In total the series is understood to have sold in excess of six million copies.
In other news, the studio also confirmed they have greenlit the adult animation series Joker: Laugh Riot and were in development on an untitled kids-focused project starring superdog Krypto.
Executive produced by Jim Krieg, Joker: Laugh Riot will be directed by Yasuhuro Aoki, who took animator credits on ChaO and the Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim. The log-line reads:
“When Batman is murdered, the Joker launches a ruthless crusade through Gotham’s underworld to find the killer who took away his greatest adversary. But as his violent quest for answers pushes him closer towards vigilante than villain, Joker is forced to confront the truth that without Batman, he doesn’t know who he is.”
Executive produced by C.H. Greenblatt, the untitled Krypto Project, see Krypto tags along with a gang of misfit criminal wannabes who live down the block. As he follows them into misadventures and poorly laid plans, Krypto’s pure nature slowly ends up redeeming them, whether they want it or not.
