• The Batwing is in the game, but the Batmobile isn’t
• Jim Gordon has a big role, his relationship with Batman is inspired by the Batman: Year One comic
• The game takes place during Batman’s 2nd year of crime fighting
• The game world is more than twice the size of Batman: Arkham City

Check out the full podcast below for even more info.

Batman: Arkham Origins will be released on October 25th for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U and PC. Keep it locked to Batman News for all the latest.

SOURCE: Game Informer

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Aaron Eckhart revealed that he hasn’t seen The Dark Knight Rises, which is surprising since his character from The Dark Knight, Harvey Dent, played a big role in the story. Eckhart also goes on to talk more about his experience with The Dark Knight, Two-Face, Heath Ledger, Christopher Nolan, and even gave his opinion about the future of the Batman franchise. The Batman talk starts around the 01:01:30 mark, check it out and head on over to IGN for more!

SOURCE: IGN

The post Aaron Eckhart talks ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, Heath Ledger, Christopher Nolan and more (audio) appeared first on Batman News.

Even though I’m the “comic book guy” around these parts, Wizard World St. Louis was actually my first ever comic book convention. What did I learn? Bring comfortable shoes, a bag for all your stuff, plenty of money, and drinking beforehand probably isn’t such a bad idea either (food and drink can be a bit pricey… as is EVERYTHING else). You’ll also want to set aside more than one day to check everything out and choose your events wisely as the scheduling of all the most interesting panels often conflict with each other.

I’ll be going to New York on Tuesday so I’ve been trying really hard to catch up on my usual work and I also have my birthday this Sunday so I was barely able to squeeze Wizard World into my schedule but I’m glad I did. While I was there I met some interesting people like the various Batman cosplayers and the two girls that were major Dr. Who fans that had lunch with me. I also ran into an old friend from college, Ben Watkins, who I still affectionately call Star Wars Ben because he’s easily the biggest Star Wars fan I have ever met. He even had a Star Wars themed wedding a few years back– and speaking of weddings, today I saw a man propose to his girlfriend during a discussion panel with Stan Lee!

It was those events like the Stan Lee and Neal Adams panels that really made the day great. The booths, for the most part, all kind of bled together after a while. It’s the board game demos and the meet and greets that you want. Wizard World was also rather light on free swag. I could have had a picture taken with the guy who played Draco Malfoy (yeah, I know his name is Tom Felton but I figure that’s a bit of knowledge I don’t need in my brain so I’m trying to shake it. Sort of like how I hate that I can still remember the name of the guy who played Napoleon Dynamite yet I don’t remember what a quadratic equation is. These bits of trivia are hogging up valuable real estate in my head), Henry Winkler, Laurie Holden, or any of the other celebrities there but I would’ve also had to pay around $60 bucks for the privilege and that just didn’t sit right with me. One of the girls I met and enjoyed an overpriced pulled pork sandwich with had her photo taken with Draco and said that it was like an assembly line where she just walked right into the booth after someone else, stood side-by-side with the actor, had a photo taken, and was escorted out without a second of casual conversation with the star. When I asked if it was worth the $65 bucks or so she, without hesitation, replied “Yes!” To each their own I suppose!

I’ve attached a few pictures of folks who played Batman dress-up (the man who went as Jack Nicholson’s Joker is easily my favorite), miscellaneous shots of the venue itself, and a video interview with my buddy Ben to promote his upcoming webseries. But best of all, I was able to record some audio of the Creator Spotlight: Neal Adams panel. I’m not sure which surprised me more, how sparsely populate that Q&A was or how marvelous 71 year old Neal Adams’ head of hair is. It’s stunning. The problem with events like the Adams and Lee panels was that they were a mere 45 minutes long. That’s not enough time to speak with a comic book legend. I could’ve had a one on one interview had I contacted Wizard early enough during the week so that’s my own fault, but as for everyone else’s enjoyment? It’s greatly hindered by the short time frame plus there’s an extra 5-10 minutes lost to the moderators waiting for late-comers to file in and tech guys to properly set up the video and audio presentations. Stan Lee was late to his own event and commented at the end at how little time he had been given to talk with the crowd, which was massive. I was actually stopped at the door but eventually allowed inside as part of the standing room only crowd (By the time the Adams panel ended, the Lee one had a line that stretched throughout the complex).

As for Adams, once he was done answering the moderator’s questions at great length there were only a few minutes left for around 3 or 4 audience questions. Batman came up, however but maybe that’s for the best since his most recent work was Batman Odyssey and judging by an interview I saw online recently he’s none too happy about the critical response (and judging by how I’m the only person who still reviewed that book past issue #2 or so… his F-bombs were probably directed at me). Once the time for questions was over we were shown an animated teaser for Neal Adams’ Blood, which I’ve also included here:

So enjoy the audio, video, and pictures! This was my first time going to one of these things so maybe now that my cherry’s been popped I’ll be able to cover the upcoming San Diego Comic Con even better. And as for the New York trip I’m taking this week? Well, that’s going to be comic-related too so stay tuned!

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Last Wednesday Batman News had the pleasure of attending the world premiere of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 at the Paley Center for Media in New York. It was a cold night… 10 degrees, but that didn’t stop over two hundred passionate Batman fans from lining up for a chance to see the movie early. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 was breathtaking, dark, and took fans on an emotional roller coaster ride. After the screening there was a panel discussion moderated by Gary Miereanu featuring legendary Batman movie producer Michael Uslan, casting director Andrea Romano, and director Jay Oliva. Batman News interviewed Andrea Romano and Jay Oliva on the red carpet, continue on to hear what they had to say.

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Empire Magazine interviewed Christopher Nolan at his home recently, and included it on a recent episode of their podcast. The 22 minute interview is a must listen to any Batman fan… Nolan reflects on when he first got the job back in 2003, touches on various rumors, and talks a lot about The Dark Knight Rises. At the end of the interview Nolan is asked to give advice to the next director. Here’s what he had to say:

The only advice I would have is…when I first met with Paul Levitz of DC prior to Batman Begins, he explained to me very clearly that Batman, of all superheroes, has thrived on reinterpretation and almost being strengthened by it. And I’m talking obviously about over the years in the comic books but then also through the movies. So when the time is right, when somebody does whatever the next iteration of the character is, they simply need to be true to what they really want to see, do something they believe in, not worry too much about what everyone else is telling them it should be.

Christopher Nolan’s interview starts around the 37:10 mark. Check it out!

SOURCE: Empire

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Last summer several websites had the pleasure of visiting the Pittsburgh set of The Dark Knight Rises. Part one of their set reports came online at the end of May, and now less than two weeks before the release of The Dark Knight Rises comes part two. Every site that was there has the same information, so I’m going to direct you all to visit Collider at the links below. Collider has the best coverage by far, and even included audio from the interviews that were conducted.

• Nestor Carbonell Talks Secrecy, His Character’s Relationship with Commissioner Gordon, and More on the Set of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
  • Nestor Carbonell audio interview:

• Costume Designer Lindy Hemming Talks Catwoman, Redesigning Bane for Nolan’s Universe, and More on the Set of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
  • Lindy Hemming audio interview:

• Co-Producer Jordan Goldberg Talks Leaks, Choosing the Film’s Villain, Putting Football in a Batman Movie, and More on the Set of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
  • Jordan Goldberg audio interview:

• Special Effects Supervisor Chris Corbould Talks Topping THE DARK KNIGHT, New Vehicles, and More on the Set of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES
  • Chris Corbould audio interview:

SOURCE: Collider

The post The Dark Knight Rises: set visit interviews (part 2) appeared first on Batman News.

Empire has been doing a “Countdown to The Dark Knight Rises” feature on their website leading up to the July 20th release of Christopher Nolan’s epic Batman finale. Today they’ve posted Hans Zimmer’s The Dark Knight Rises score in its entirety! You’ll be able to buy the soundtrack on July 17th but you can give each song a listen right now, after the break.

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Last week WaterTower Music released 30 second samples from The Dark Knight Rises soundtrack and today they’ve updated the tracks with full 1 minute samples. At this rate we’ll hear the whole thing before it’s released on July 17th (not that I’m complaining). Check out the new samples at the source link below and leave your thoughts in the comments.

Update 07/03/12: The Dark Knight Rises soundtrack is now available for pre-order on iTunes, and comes with 3 bonus tracks.

SOURCE: WaterTower Music 

The post New 1 minute samples from ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ soundtrack [Update] appeared first on Batman News.

A couple weeks ago samples from Hans Zimmer’s The Dark Knight Rises score were released online, and today there are new 30 second samples online. The Dark Knight Rises: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack will go on sale July 17th.

SOURCE: WaterTower Music

The post More samples from ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ soundtrack (audio) appeared first on Batman News.

Earlier this week the official album art and track listing for The Dark Knight Rises was revealed, and now you can listen to 30 seconds of each track! You’ll be able to pick up the full soundtrack on July 17th. Give the tracks a sample, and let me know what you think of Hans Zimmer’s work in the comments.

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