Yesterday Warner Bros. announced that The Dark Knight Rises had started filming, as well as launching the film’s official website. Along with this launch includes a social campaign that revealed the first photo of Tom Hardy as Bane.

At launch the official website was just a black image with some odd chanting playing. A deditcated fan looked at the visual spectrum of the chanting and noticed it contained a twitter hashtag of #thefirerises. As fans tweeted using that hashtag, on the official site an image started to be filled in using the twitter icon of people using the hashtag. The image is still being filled in, but /Film has posted the details of this social campaign and the high res photo of the finished picture.

Tomorrow, May 7, 2011, is the annual Free Comic Book Day (FCBD). For those of you not familiar with Free Comic Book Day, on the first Saturday in May comic shops give out free comic book produced just for FCBD by the publishers. Just how many free comics you can get depends on your local shop, so be sure to ask.

To find a participating comic shop near you click here.

Full list of available comics after the jump.
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Warner brothers has released a new theatrical trailer for Green Lantern, which comes out next month on June 17, 2011.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

Warner Bros has made many popular modern DC books into animated features over the last 4 years, and after getting their feet wet with fare like Under The Red Hood and New Frontier, they’re finally going to go for one of the biggest, baddest comics in their library: The Dark Knight Returns.

Returns tells the story of a 55 year old Bruce Wayne returning to his Batman identity after a decade’s absence. He confronts Harvey “Two Face” Dent, The Joker, and Superman at various points in the story, and takes on a new Robin as his partner. The series, written and and drawn by Frank Miller, is one of the most highly regarded in the DC canon, and helped lay the blueprint for the dark and gritty Batman that is best known today.

WB had a real misfire in their first animated production, re-writing and altering The Death and Return of Superman into a standalone 75 minute feature. Literally dozens of issues and hundreds of characters were cut from the story, and the movie still felt rushed. By comparison, choosing shorter stories (no more than 6 issues) to adapt has worked well for WB, and the bulk of The Dark Knight Returns should make into a fine animated feature. There are some thematic elements that may push WB beyond their usual PG-13 rating, but I certainly hope the original story makes it through unmolested.

Elements of The Dark Knight Returns were present in a Batman The Animated Series episode, “Legends Of The Dark Knight.” In it, 3 children share stories about what they know about Batman. One of the kids is a dead ringer for TDKR’s Robin, Carrie Kelley, and her tale depicts a 5 minute sequence almost directly lifted from the page of Batman fighting the Mutant gang. Michael Ironside provided the voice of Batman in this sequence, and would honestly make a fine choice to reprise the role in a full feature. See a clip at the bottom of this article.

An animated production of Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One is already nearing completion, and is expected to premeire at Comic Con 2011 in San Diego, with a DVD/Blu Ray Release following.

Tip via Joey O and [Bleeding Cool]

Didn’t read the original book? Its never too late to catch up on the classics.

Green Lantern stars Ryan Reynolds and comes out June 17, 2011.

On the left, we have the first on set picture of Adrianne Palicki in the Wonder Woman costume. As you can see, the costume has change significantly from our first look. The shiny pants are gone, and the boots are now red. The stars on the legs were there before, but are a little more visible thanks to a change in the material.

The photo on the right is the same costume worn by someone who is clearly Palicki’s body/stunt double. Or maybe she’s making a weird face. Either way, she’s jumped up on top of that car, so we can look forward to Wonder Woman doing that in the pilot.

What do you think? Is this an improvement on the costume, like the old way better, or still think another direction was needed? Leave a comment below!
Photos courtesy SFX.CO.UK

This post includes a press release as that will take you the rest of the day to read, but here are the basics…

Cartoon Network historically has had huge success with shows based on DC Comics characters (JLU, Batman Brave And The Bold) as well as Warners Bros Animation (Looney Toons, Ben 10), and so they’re ordering several new series as well as renewing some successes.

The hotly anticipated Green Lantern The Animated will follow in the footsteps that Batman The Animated series did in 1992 by bringing a character to the small screen following a big movie opening. Differing from previous DC animated presentations is that this GL series will be entirely computer animated, unlike the past 19 years of Batman, Superman, and other series.
Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corp will join the renewed Young Justice and Batman Brave and The Bold as part of the “DC Nation” block, which the press release implies may see other DC properties down the line. Safe bet on some of the DC direct to video movies over the last 3 years such as New Frontier and Under The Red Hood airing in these slots as well.

Thundercats is also now officially being announced as part of Cartoon Networks falls schedule from Warner Bros Animation. WB will also relaunch Looney Toons in a “contemporary” animated style. CN is renewing Ben 10 and Scooby Doo as well.

In related news, Cartoon Network has ordered a series based on the How To Train Your Dragon series of books and CG movie.

Rounding out the announcements: “LEGO Ninjago” which is a cartoon series based on ninjas made out of LEGO.

You may now read the press release.
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