Gotta Have a Copy of Batman: Gotham Knight

You remember The Animatrix from 2003? When Warner Brothers and the same team that gave us The Matrix came up with a collection of nine animated short films set in The Matrix universe, and set in between the first 2 Matrix movies? That was totally kick-ass.

Now, what if you had the Animatrix all over again, but this time, it's all about Batman? Should be pretty awesome, I say.

Batman: Gotham Knight is due out on July 8 this year, just before The Dark Knight hits cinemas. It features six animated short stories set in between 2005's Batman Begins and this summer's highly-anticipated Batman movie.

Just like The Animatrix, the powers-that-be behind Batman Begins and The Dark Knight have collaborated once again with top anime directors and animators to come up with yet more Gotham City action and kickassery.

Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman for "Batman: The Animated Series", "Justice League" and "Justice League Unlimited" comes back to reprise his role as the Dark Knight.

Check out this video posted by WarnerBrothersOnline on YouTube:

Now check out the trailer posted by Georgem2789, and a preview/sneak peek shared by Lowekinder, both also shared over YouTube.

Batman: Gotham Knight is the third animated direct-to-DVD project of Warner Premiere and Warner Brothers Animation, the first two releases being Superman: Doomsday and Justice League: The New Frontier. A fourth project, this one on Wonder Woman, is due out either later this year or early next- another DVD worth watching out for.

Picture of The Dark Knight courtesy of Wikipedia.

Cheers, everyone!

Speed Racer: Crash and Burn

Speed Racer may very well be this summer's biggest box-office disappointment.

According to Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood Daily late last Friday, the Wachowski Brothers' project had only made a dismal US$6.1 million on its opening day, with film experts predicting an overall weekend take of US$20-25 million as kids bump the movie attendance up in matinee screenings.

Speed Racer debuted at #3 at the box office, with the Ashton Kutcher/Cameron Diaz romantic comedy What Happens in Vegas opening at #2, and Marvel Entertainment's Iron Man holding strong at #1 on its second week.

What Happens In Vegas opened last Friday with US$6.8 million, and is expected to make about US$20 million for the entire weekend. Iron Man has made US$15 million on Friday night alone, bringing the total movie earnings to almost US$180 million in the US alone.

Figures tracked from overseas also show disappointing figures; for all the hype, Speed Racer only debuted at #6 in the United Kingdom, and #9 in Germany. The film was expected to do better overseas, but there are no official figures from Warner Brothers just yet.

Reports say that Speed Racer had cost about US$180 million to make, and another estimated US$100 million to market. Meanwhile, What Happens in Vegas only cost some US$30 million to make.

Speed Racer stars Emile Hirsch (of Lords of Dogtown and The Girl Next Door), Matthew Fox (Jack Shepard of "Lost") and Cristina Ricci (of Monster, and more recently, Black Snake Moan), and is directed by brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski, same guys who gave us V for Vendetta and the Matrix trilogy.

The Latest Dark Knight Trailer

Just thought you'd like to check out the new Dark Knight trailer here, which came out just this week, and shared by Xxjalaldevilxx on YouTube. Enjoy.

I've also put the other two trailers here, this one was played right before the I Am Legend screenings. Shared by wmdeez on YouTube.

And here's the very first teaser that came out, shared by aprupp, also on YouTube.

Looking forward to catching The Dark Knight on the big screen this summer. The sequel to Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005) comes out in late July, this one based on the storyline of Batman: The Long Halloween- which you should grab a copy of, if you haven't yet.

Cheers, everyone!