Next DC Animated Story: 'Crisis on Two Earths'

71 Posted on Sep 15, 2009 in articles by Josh Flanagan |


Ain't It Cool is reporting that in Spring of 2010, we'll see a new animated feature from Bruce Timm and company, with an original story written by Dwayne McDuffie, and rooted in the Crisis stories.

In Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, a “good” Lex Luthor arrives from an alternate universe to recruit the Justice League to help save his Earth from the Crime Syndicate, a gang of villainous characters with virtually identical super powers to the Justice League. What ensues is the ultimate battle of good versus evil in a war that threatens both planets and, through a diabolical plan launched by Owlman, puts the balance of all existence in peril.

All-star voice cast led by Mark Harmon (NCIS) as Superman, James Woods (Ghosts of Mississippi) as Owlman, Chris Noth (Sex and the City, Law & Order) as Lex Luthor, William Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) as Batman, Gina Torres (Serenity, Firefly) as Super Woman and Bruce Davison (X-Men) as the President.

So it looks like every male actor in Hollywood is going to get a go at Superman.  But more important than that: James Woods!






Comments

Holy shit, James Woods!!  This sounds promising.  Is that a screen shot of the film? or of an old JLU episode?  Either way, the art style is easy on the eyes

Posted by drakedangerz on 09/15/09 at 12:09 PM

 This looks great! Finally Hal will get to interact with the JLA, and for some reason I love the post crisis Martian Manhunter costume. Maybe because he doesn't look like an alien chippendale dancer.

Posted by Kaylon on 09/15/09 at 12:12 PM

Fascinating.

Posted by conor on 09/15/09 at 12:13 PM

They just keep pumping this movies out pretty quickly don't they?

 Thats just good for all of us.

Posted by Bryce31 on 09/15/09 at 12:15 PM

I got VERY excited when I saw this for a second...'They are going to do Crisis on Infinite Earths!!?!??'  Sadly no, but I will certainly take this!

Posted by Hawkboy on 09/15/09 at 12:21 PM

@drake: Ain't It Cool News described the photo as being from the movie, with Lex Luthor being the "good" alternate earth version. Should be interesting.

Posted by Rustyautoparts on 09/15/09 at 12:21 PM

This.

Sounds.

AWESOME!!

DC is killing - KILLING - with these movies. Marvel really needs to up their game.

Posted by Dan on 09/15/09 at 12:23 PM

This was always a great Grant Morrison story, glad they're making it into a movie

Posted by RoiVampire on 09/15/09 at 12:45 PM

I feel a little bad because my first thought was kevin conroy wasn't playing batman, but I will have to accept that he simply can't be the caped crusader for the rest of my life.

Posted by convoy83 on 09/15/09 at 01:04 PM

Can't say I'm too excited about the casting.  Maybe its because I fell in love with the Dini Animated Series and can only expect that cast in animated form.

Posted by ato220 on 09/15/09 at 01:07 PM

They do this before finally giving The Flash a full length? *sigh*

I'm sure this will be fine, probably even great but I just keep crossing my fingers for an animated Flash movie and I keep being dissapointed...

Posted by Doctor2Geeks on 09/15/09 at 01:11 PM

Time to move on from Kevin Conroy, people. :)

Besides, he's playing Batman in PUBLIC ENEMIES.

Posted by conor on 09/15/09 at 01:11 PM

If you have Kevin Conroy as Batman you have to have Tim Daly as Superman one without the other just throws me off. I aggree with Conor, let Conroy's work in Batman Animated series shine, if they keep putting his voice on every different animated rendition of Batman it loses something after awhile.

Posted by truestranger on 09/15/09 at 01:20 PM

So... this is kinda-sorta JLA Earth-2?

Posted by PraxJarvin on 09/15/09 at 01:22 PM

@PraxJarvin: Seems like... maybe-ish?

Posted by conor on 09/15/09 at 01:27 PM

The DC animated line just blows me away with the casts they line up!  Every time I see a casting line-up for one of these, I know instantly I want to see the movies. 

Posted by bansidhewail on 09/15/09 at 01:28 PM

Super Woman???

Posted by WonderAli on 09/15/09 at 01:33 PM

James Woods as Owlman?  Nice.  I'm thinking Billy B will do pretty well as Bats too.

Such a big fan of DC's animated line, and have been for a looong time.  I'm excited to see what Marvel does with the new deal as far as animation is concerned.

Posted by brattyben on 09/15/09 at 01:40 PM

It has Mark Harmon, the greatest actor who ever lived!

I'm all excited for this there's no doubt. But I seriously hope Timm and the crew learns from the mistakes of the Green Lantern film. Take your time with the story and do a good job with the animation. Cause bad 80's CGI isn't going to cut it for me this time.

Posted by TheNextChampion on 09/15/09 at 01:43 PM

There was a JLU episode that was fairly similar to this.  Should be fun.

Posted by stuclach on 09/15/09 at 02:10 PM

Mark Harmon *sigh* :)

Posted by acbg on 09/15/09 at 02:16 PM

I wonder if Chris Meloni is gonna reprise Green Lantern? I thought that was a good fit.

Posted by comicBOOKchris on 09/15/09 at 02:20 PM

Always exciting to hear of a new Bruce Timm project but this sounds like the demise of the rumoured JLU reunion show that McDuffie had written...which was basically this exact same premise.

 

Oh well...I'm sure this will be aweosme.

Posted by Luthor on 09/15/09 at 02:39 PM

Is this going to be in the DCAU continuity? I know they've done some parallel earth stories in there before...

Posted by BrianBaer on 09/15/09 at 03:01 PM

@BrianBaer: I wouldn't worry about it. Just enjoy it. That having been said, just like all the others, no it's most likely not.

Posted by conor on 09/15/09 at 03:08 PM

I understand why they do it, but I really wish they could make these DTV animated movies a full 80-90 minutes.  The standard 72 minutes just seems too short.

Posted by sullivan85 on 09/15/09 at 03:14 PM

@BrianBaer: The WB animated films are all supposed to stand on their own, sort of a Silver Age conceit.  That's why the design style changes and the casting varies in each video

Posted by Tad on 09/15/09 at 03:19 PM

Looks like it should be pretty sweet!

Posted by SteenAR on 09/15/09 at 03:22 PM

I hate to say this, sound like I'm trolling:

@Brianbaer  Who cares?  I didn't even think there was a DCAU continuity.

Posted by ato220 on 09/15/09 at 03:34 PM

I always loved the "reverse" Earth stories ("reverse" is my word, not to be confused with Bizarro World -- a different kind of reversed Earth). When I was a kid I loved the idea that there was a DC Earth in which the world's lone defender is Lex Luthor. It was just too cool!  

I enjoyed Grant Morrison's updated version too.  I especially like the twist in which each universe favors a side, so heroes or villians can be defeated if they're on the wrong side of the universal dividing line. Plus think of how much determination Luthor must have to keep fighting once this is realized. (He did survive, right? It's been a while since I read the Morrison/Quitely story.)

I look forward to the movies release.

Posted by powerdad on 09/15/09 at 04:01 PM

Looks great, comes from a real fun source material.  I hope that they show the E-2 counterparts to be close to as messed up as they did in the comics.  But I am not holding out hope for a junkie flash (but it would be fun)

But I refuse to let go of Clancy Brown as Lex!  He just does diabolical better than anybody!  Noth, in what I have seen him in, just does not make me think 'evil genius'

Posted by MisterJ on 09/15/09 at 04:16 PM

I like how infinate earths became 2 earths.

It's like futurama when Fry discovers there aren't infinate realities, just this one, and Cowboy world.

Can we expect to see the evil Justice League all in Cow Boy Hats :)

Joking side, this sounds great. I wish Marvel could come up with some good ideas for there animated movies...

Posted by Zeppo on 09/15/09 at 04:29 PM

this sounds awesome!! i cant wait to see this!!

Posted by rayclark on 09/15/09 at 04:44 PM

very cool, can't wait till it hits netflix!

Posted by rjspring on 09/15/09 at 05:08 PM

@Zeppo: Altough technically they did contradict themselves the next season with 'Farnsworth Parabox'. :)

Now if DC decides to do an animated version of Final Crisis. Oh boy.....would there be hatred on this site right now.

Posted by TheNextChampion on 09/15/09 at 06:01 PM

Who's James Woods?

Posted by JumpingJupiter on 09/15/09 at 06:21 PM

Well, mister woods, your next song is going to be number one... with a bullet

Posted by edward on 09/15/09 at 06:44 PM

@conor Yeah... Maybe-ish seems to be it. The basic concept seems to be, if not necessarily what (admittedly little) it says beyond that. Still, it seems really cool.

I have to admit, just seeing the title I thought this was going to be an adaptation"Crisis on Earth-1/Crisis on Earth-2," which would rock my world.

Posted by PraxJarvin on 09/15/09 at 07:38 PM

@PraxJarvin: Let me put it this way, if they show Johnny Quick shooting up, I'll be surprised.

Posted by conor on 09/15/09 at 07:40 PM

This looks like Grant Morrison's Earth-2

Posted by muddi900 on 09/15/09 at 08:04 PM

Where is my Judas Contract movie?

Posted by scherem on 09/15/09 at 09:06 PM

@scherem: It is, sadly, probably not going to happen.

Posted by conor on 09/15/09 at 09:33 PM

I read about this earlier on CBR, looking forward to it. Maybe in the future we could see an animated feature based on a Vertigo title, how cool would that be?

Posted by rush on 09/15/09 at 10:03 PM

"Where is my Judas Contract movie?"

I know! I want to see a good teen titans animation for once.

Posted by Bryce31 on 09/15/09 at 11:40 PM

So is this basically JL Worlds Collide? the movie Bruce Timm discussed a long time ago? Either way i'm game and yeah we need the Judas Contract movie already!

Posted by gilltron5 on 09/16/09 at 12:28 AM

Oh Hell yeah!

Posted by Jurassicalien on 09/16/09 at 12:44 AM

OOOOOOOOOOOH ANIMATED CRISIS. You had me at the picture. I'm so yoinking that from Netflix =)

Posted by Mangaman on 09/16/09 at 01:41 AM

BAH! No Kevin Conroy???? No Chris Meloni????? =| Still going to watch it but with not as much excitement.

BTW Josh you mean: "James Woods (VIDEODROME)" =) "James woods (FAMILY GUY)" is appropriate too.

Posted by Mangaman on 09/16/09 at 01:45 AM

It sounds like a loose adaptation of JLA Earth 2. Sadly, Im not too interested in this, I'd prefer if they just did stories on specific characters instead of the entire JLA. At 75 minutes, you just dont have enough time to build up all the characters. Like someone above said, I would love a Flash animated film, and maybe, just maybe we could someday possibly get a Catwoman animated film?

Posted by DarkKnightDetective on 09/16/09 at 02:09 AM

=\ sorry to hear that DarkKnightDetective. I didn't know it was a 75 minute film. I tend not to listen to details as minutia like that may change. I'm just going to do what I always do: be optimistic about it until I get a glimpse of the trailer before judging it slightly.

Posted by Mangaman on 09/16/09 at 02:31 AM

I also hope they do a Flash animated or live action movie, and I hope and pray it isn't a comedy. For some reason, they've always used the Flash as comic relief in the cartoons. Why, I don't know.

Posted by IroncladMerc on 09/16/09 at 06:21 AM

Of all the great work James Woods has done the press release mentions Ghosts of Mississippi? What about Once Upon A Time In America or Videodrome? I think Ghosts of Mississippi is a good movie, but it was total Oscar bait. 

Posted by WinTheWonderboy on 09/16/09 at 12:50 PM

I applaud DC Entertainment for the constant supply of these top notch animated features.  All I can ask for is more.

Posted by lantern4life on 09/16/09 at 02:11 PM

Flash Fact: I'm a bit annoyed by the Hal Jordan GL symbol, just because it's not the one that's canon, but that's my little nitpick.

Posted by Mangaman on 09/16/09 at 04:05 PM

@Mangaman: What canon are you talking about? This movie isn't a part of any canon but itself. That's the standard Green Lantern symbol from the comics.

Posted by conor on 09/16/09 at 04:32 PM

I'm just glad that they are using Hal Jordan instead of John Stewart. That always bugged me on the JLU cartoon, mainly because Hal Jordan's GL has been one of my favorite characters since I started reading comics back in the mid-80's...

Posted by supertrackmonkey on 09/16/09 at 07:48 PM

they pretty much did this story in an episode of justice league but bruce tim can do no wrong in my eyes so im pumped up for this one. and a baldwin as batman? eh well see how that goes

Posted by peterporker on 09/16/09 at 09:06 PM

@peterporker: Fun fact - Alec Baldwin was almost cast as Batman in 1989.

Posted by conor on 09/16/09 at 09:27 PM

ohhhhh yeah i forgets thanks. and i hope thats finally hal in there

Posted by peterporker on 09/16/09 at 11:33 PM

Dwayne McDuffie writes a fantastic animated Justice League, DC should really hold him to their animated properties. Mainly because his run on the JLA book was dreadful.

Posted by InfectiousFunk on 09/17/09 at 12:43 AM

Is an animated Kingdom Come also scrapped?

 Regardless, still looking forward to this and have been relatively impressed with a good number of these adaptations.

Posted by ivithebatmanivi on 09/17/09 at 11:39 AM

So this is less Crisis, and more like G. Mo and Quietly's JLA: Earth 2

Posted by ActualButt on 09/17/09 at 04:28 PM

@conor
I just laughed out loud imagining Jack Donaghy as Batman.

Come to think of it, he should just do the Jack voice to play the part. 

Posted by captbastrd on 09/17/09 at 08:19 PM

fun fact: this is based on an animated movie that never got made that was supposed to be the bridge  between JL and JLU.

Posted by captamerica101 on 09/17/09 at 08:46 PM

@Conor: http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/1/13925/299584-193924-hal-jordan_super.jpg

Any other style of that symbol kind of irks me. Just because this symbol style pushes the fact that Hal's a cop. The one we see above is sort of, low quality if you get my meaning.

Posted by Mangaman on 09/18/09 at 01:59 AM

@conor: canon as in reflecting the current green lantern in the blackest night mini. This is the Hal new people to comics will come to know so it only seems logical to show that kind of Hal.

Posted by Mangaman on 09/18/09 at 02:00 AM

@Mangaman: It doesn't really matter that they symbol is different (even though, again, the one used here is the traditional symbol from the comics). If someone seesthis movie and then finds a Green Lantern comic, a slightly different symbol will be the leastof their worries.

This will be the third incarnation of Hal in these movies. All of them different. These films are totally separate from the books, as they should be.

Posted by conor on 09/18/09 at 02:09 AM

@Mangaman
So, your biggest gripe is that the Lantern symbol isn't protruding out of his chest via green light construct?
A) That's something I rarely ever notice when reading GL and, if I did, it would probably annoy me.
B) To have that light constantly juxtaposed a few inches in front of Hal's chest would be difficult to animate since the character has to move around a lot.
C) It would frankly look kinda stupid in animated form, if you ask me. Picture a character named like 'Lighthouse Man' and he just always had a beam of light coming from his chest, it'd look like a joke.

Beyond that, I've been a regular GL reader Sinestro Corp and have read Rebirth and I still only kinda get how it shows that he's a cop. So, if I'm not catching on, how would someone who doesn't read comics and just wants to watch a DC cartoon get it? (I mean, how is it a badge? Isn't the symbol that's already on his chest enough of a badge? Is it like a siren's light? That works for me... I guess.)

Posted by captbastrd on 09/19/09 at 04:58 PM

@Conor: Yeah I know that. But again it's like you said on the video podcast it really pushes the idea that he's a cop and that protruding symbol is like a glowing badge. He's supposed to be the coolest guy in the room right? His flashiness reflects his characteristic, that's why I feel that kind of garish thing works for Hal and no one else.

@Captbastard:
A. It's really one of those "go big or go home" deals where they should either do it completly or not at all then so it's out of sight out of mind.
B. Ahh but it would be one of the highlights of the movie. "They really pay attention to detail...blah blah"
C. Oo? How do you even know if it hasn't been tried? People have been saying stuff like that about animation for the longest time. Even in successful cartoons.

It's Hal Jordan's interpretation of a badge. You have to keep in mind that he's a highly confident man, (I hope they make that evident in the movie) so his confidence would be reflected through his ring with imagery powered by his imagination.

That's the kind of point I want to make but w/e it's not something that'll make or break the movie, it's preference.

Posted by Mangaman on 09/19/09 at 09:46 PM

I could be the most confident man in town, but if I wear a dildo on my head, I'll still look like a jackass.

Not that the badge is anywhere near as ridiculous as the image I just suggested. I dunno, this, as well as the Luke Cage costume thing on the MUA2 article (which, with no retorts coming our way, I believe Prax and I won that battle of Power Man love) proves that you and I ought not ever collaborate on a costume design job.

Posted by captbastrd on 09/20/09 at 12:27 AM

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