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JJ Abrams, Matt Reeves, and Bruce Timm Making a New Batman Animated Series on HBO Max

ManaByte

Gold Member
Batman 1989 led to Batman: The Animated Series. One of the greatest animated shows ever produced. Now JJ Abrams and Matt Reeves are doing the same with The Batman and doing a new animated series on HBO Max with Bruce Timm involved:

“We are beyond excited to be working together to bring this character back, to tell engrossing new stories in Gotham City,” said Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and Reeves (The Batman) in a statement. “The series will be thrilling, cinematic and evocative of Batman’s noir roots, while diving deeper into the psychology of these iconic characters. We cannot wait to share this new world.”
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CGiRanger

Banned
JJ Abrams to me is synonymous with total Mediocrity at best. I honestly cannot think of anything he's made that I'd want to rewatch or look back on with fondness or that stands the test of time.

So yeah, not expecting much here, even with Bruce Timm's name.
 

kunonabi

Member
Abrams and the current Timm do not instill much confidence.

Still it will undoubtedly better than the terrible Superman cartoon they're going to put out.
 

mortal

Banned
Batman 1989 led to Batman: The Animated Series. One of the greatest animated shows ever produced. Now JJ Abrams and Matt Reeves are doing the same with The Batman and doing a new animated series on HBO Max with Bruce Timm involved:


oonxk1zk43071.jpg
Damn, I've always loved this version of the cowl, but JJ Abrams being attached doesn't exactly get me jumping out of my seat.
 
I'm optimistic, but cautious.

And when I say cautious, I mean that I'm wondering how badly they could fuck it all up.

The recent DC animated movies are so shit, that I'm amazed at how shit they have gotten when I once heralded DC's animated movies as the biggest win they have over Marvel.

Now they can't even do that.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
It had better be naughty Bruce Timm and be full of nudity and sex, I did his pin-up style.

JJ hasn't written or directed shit since ROS and that was FIVE YEARS ago. TFA was like FIVE YEARS before that. Other than those films most of his writing credits are 10 years or more. His name is on a milion things as "producer" but what has he really been doing? Guy has been coasting on LOST and a couple of movies his whole career.
 

Fbh

Member
Hopefully Bruce Timm is the one leading this.
JJ sucks and personally though The Badman was very mediocre aside from it sort of looking cool
 
It took a lot more than Bruce Timm to make BTAS what it was. Reeves also certainly seems to "get it", but it's easy to forget that BTAS was just loaded with talent that made it special (Paul Dini, Shirley Walker, Eric Radomski, Andrea Romano, Glen Murakami, Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, and so on).

This won't be BTAS, but hopefully it's somewhere in the ballpark of Timm's Green Lantern TAS, and not that Batman and Harley Quinn piece of crap.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
BTAS. Best Batman shows/movies I've seen. I like Bale Batman too. Crazy that a cartoon is better than any movie IMO. How a cartoon Batman show on Fox Kids at 5:00 pm is better than blockbuster movies makes no sense.
 
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jason10mm

Gold Member
I just want him detecting again. Less focus on big set piece city wide battles and more "Biff, Bam, Boom" fisticuffs after he solves a crime caper.

And if Timm is doing the art direction (i.e. wasp waisted, perky bust, doe eyes, full head of hair, none of this androynous shit), as many female vixens (including Vixen) as humanly possible. Just give HQ a rest for a bit, Joker as well. Do the Birds of Prey right (again). Give us a proper Batwoman in time.
 

near

Member
JJ hasn't written or directed shit since ROS and that was FIVE YEARS ago. TFA was like FIVE YEARS before that. Other than those films most of his writing credits are 10 years or more. His name is on a milion things as "producer" but what has he really been doing? Guy has been coasting on LOST and a couple of movies his whole career.
This post hurts my feelings for multiple reasons. :(
 

near

Member
Is he your dad or something?

If so, tell him to make a project, strict 50 million dollar budget, and get creative within those limitations.
Close, he’s my Godfather.
The Godfather of Television.

A lot of the films he has produced fit that description. He is too prestige to direct low budget films, show some respect!
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
Close, he’s my Godfather.
The Godfather of Television.

A lot of the films he has produced fit that description. He is too prestige to direct low budget films, show some respect!
Nah, he is great at spitballing lots of weird stiff but stumbles in resolving it. No question he can get a show up and running with initial interest, but he has TERRIBLE third acts and almost always whiffs the landing. And his cinematography is stale.

I think he would benefit from an arduous project that forces him to get back to his roots and makes him write and direct from start to finish where he can't just fall back on expensive cgi smoke and mirrors to hide how hollow stuff actually is. Find his heart and soul again.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
I wonder why this is on amazon instead of Max. Zaslav renting put IP to bring in $$$, amazon just the rental service, DC moving away from Max as distribution, or does amazon have BTAS series rights from way back when that this somehow falls under?
 
Looking good so far.

I wonder why this is on amazon instead of Max. Zaslav renting put IP to bring in $$$, amazon just the rental service, DC moving away from Max as distribution, or does amazon have BTAS series rights from way back when that this somehow falls under?

Pretty sure it was confirmed to be part of the new strategy where Paramount and WB rent out their IPs in a desperate attempt to turn a profit on their "streaming business".
 

DeafTourette

Perpetually Offended
I wonder why this is on amazon instead of Max. Zaslav renting put IP to bring in $$$, amazon just the rental service, DC moving away from Max as distribution, or does amazon have BTAS series rights from way back when that this somehow falls under?

Zaslav didn't have faith in some of the shows and movies they had planned for Max, so they're either cancelled or being shipped around to other services... Like the new Looney Tunes movie with Wile E. Coyote... I don't know if they found a distributor or streaming service for it.
 

Dr. Claus

Banned
Seems like your typical slacktivist reboot. Female Joker, oh sorry I mean Jester. Set in the 30s, but with strong diverse cast of female characters, many of whom are in some position of power.

Hopefully they went further than just the skin deep nonsense and actually gave them unique and compelling personalities and not just random race/sex swaps of previously existing characters. Seeing Timm makes me want to have hope, but moderny Hollywood likes to take that from me.
 

AgatonSax

Member
Seems like your typical slacktivist reboot. Female Joker, oh sorry I mean Jester. Set in the 30s, but with strong diverse cast of female characters, many of whom are in some position of power.

Hopefully they went further than just the skin deep nonsense and actually gave them unique and compelling personalities and not just random race/sex swaps of previously existing characters. Seeing Timm makes me want to have hope, but moderny Hollywood likes to take that from me.
Really? Only female characters I saw were Harley, Catwoman and (presumably) Montoya all of whom are staples of Batman mythos.
 
I had forgotten that Ed Brubaker was the head writer on this. He's a great Batman writer with some classics to his name (Gotham Central and The Man Who Laughs). So, if you're looking for reasons to be optimistic, that would be a good one.

Trailer looked fine but I don't know. Didn't see Paul Dini's name on it and honestly he did most of the writing and the directing back in the day. We'll see how a Timm without Dini works out.
There have been rumors going around for a long time that Dini and Timm had some kind of falling out. It tracks somewhat because IIRC they have never worked together again after Justice League. Though, it could easily be true that they just haven't crossed paths again.

Timm without Dini can either be good (Green Lantern TAS) or trash (Batman and Harley Quinn). This seems like it'll be closer to good than trash.

Seems like your typical slacktivist reboot. Female Joker, oh sorry I mean Jester. Set in the 30s, but with strong diverse cast of female characters, many of whom are in some position of power.

Hopefully they went further than just the skin deep nonsense and actually gave them unique and compelling personalities and not just random race/sex swaps of previously existing characters. Seeing Timm makes me want to have hope, but moderny Hollywood likes to take that from me.
...you mean Harley Quinn and Renee Montoya? Who have both been around for 30+ years? And who were both created in part by Bruce Timm?

I know some of you guys are perpetually triggered, but this ain't it friend.
 
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tkscz

Member
Seems like your typical slacktivist reboot. Female Joker, oh sorry I mean Jester. Set in the 30s, but with strong diverse cast of female characters, many of whom are in some position of power.

Hopefully they went further than just the skin deep nonsense and actually gave them unique and compelling personalities and not just random race/sex swaps of previously existing characters. Seeing Timm makes me want to have hope, but moderny Hollywood likes to take that from me.
You got to let it go sometimes and look at the big picture. Jester was Harley Quinn and both her and Montoya were introduced in B:TAS back in the early 90s by Bruce Timm. It's just another take on characters he created. Only thing changed is that the Gordan's are black.

There have been rumors going around for a long time that Dini and Timm had some kind of falling out. It tracks somewhat because IIRC they have never worked together again after Justice League. Though, it could easily be true that they just haven't crossed paths again.

Timm without Dini can either be good (Green Lantern TAS) or trash (Batman and Harley Quinn). This seems like it'll be closer to good than trash.
Interesting, never heard those rumors. Can't say Dini doesn't have his ups and downs. Just my opinion but I couldn't get into the Harley Quinn series. First season was good but as it went on I got less and less interested. But Dini worked on the entire series.
 
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