Now, Jensen Ackles, the man behind Dean Winchester, is moving one step closer as he lends his voice to a new animated Batman DVD release.

According to the LA Times, Jensen will voice The Red Hood, an anti-hero, superhero in Batman: Under the Red Hood. Bruce Greenwood will voice Batman and even Neil Patrick Harris will be along for the ride.

No word on the release date yet, but a preview of the film will be included on the next Justice League DVD “Crisis on Two Earths.”

Photo: Jensen Ackles poses with his Ten Inch Hero castmates Danneel Harris and Elisabeth Harnois. Credit: Cynthia Boris

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Goyer said the company is taking time to figure out a better plan for the development of these movies. They are, after all, cash cows with huge potential. The year 2008 will be remembered as a landmark year for comic book projects. Marvel Comics became the first comic company to have its own studio and came charging out of the gate with summer blockbuster Iron Man. A Samuel L. Jackson cameo at the end of that movie set up the storyline for an Avengers film. Marvel carried it on as Tony Stark showed up in The Incredible Hulk to talk about the team they’re getting together.

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Photo by Stephen Vaughan

But in terms of overall quality and mainstream media acceptance, 2008 was the year of The Dark Knight. Thanks to Heath Ledger’s captivating, Oscar-buzz gaining performance as The Joker, Knight was a genre-busting success. In print, DC was poised to take full advantage with the controversial Batman R.I.P storyline. Spoiler alert: Batman is not really dead.

Goyer said DC Comics was responsible for 15 percent of Warner’s profits last year, so Time Warner execs: Batman is your new boss. Maybe not quite, but he’s still really important. I can’t wait to see what comes of Warner Bros. efforts. A decent Superman movie would be a great start. Even better would be some movement on the Justice League movie that has been in development hell for years. Here’s hoping.

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The Dark Knight

The movie is benefiting from strong word-of-mouth, great reviews and repeat viewings. Experts are now giving it a shot at the $600 million record set by Titanic. No movie in the past decade has come remotely close to that mark. If any film can, Dark Knight looks to be the one.

To shatter the record held by Titanic, you need to be an event picture. This one certainly is. You need breakout performances and Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Aaron Eckhart deliver them. Publicity is needed and boy do we have that going. Ledger’s getting posthumous Oscar buzz. Bale is the lead story on every entertainment news show because of his ill-timed legal trouble. This may be the perfect Bat-storm, comic book flick fans.

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Photo by Stephen Vaughan

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Sorry Spidey, another one of your records just fell to the Caped Crusader. The Dark Knight hit the $200 million mark in just five days, surpassing the eight days it took Spider-Man 2 to get there.

Now experts are speculating it could make as much as $500 million and might even have a shot at finishing just behind Titanic in all-time gross. Titanic pulled in $600.8 million domestically and $1.84 billion overall during its record run.

There is some concern that the negative publicity surrounding Christian Bale’s arrest could have a bad effect on the movie’s box office. But as the old saying goes, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

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The recent events surrounding Dark Knight star Christian Bale are tinged with quite a bit of irony. After all, many folks in Gotham want the police to bring Batman in for his vigilante acts. Then, the actor gets arrested in a family dispute. Between Bale’s arrest and Heath Ledger’s death, the word curse is going to start being thrown around in connection with this movie.

I’m not about to pass judgment here, I’ve got a few family members I’m surprised I haven’t hit yet. I’m not thinking this will do anything to the movie’s second weekend take. I am a little worried about Warner Bros. overreacting because as we know, they’ll recast Batman at the drop of a cowl. At the rate the franchise was deteriorating I think Vin Diesel was in line to play Batman.

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Bat-mania reached an all-time high due to the untimely passing of Heath Ledger and his critically-acclaimed performance as The Joker. His dark, twisted villain is drawing some of the best reviews of any bad guy in cinema history.

With this being the last big film of the summer, it’s expected to have a good long run at or near the top. It’s of course the type of movie that lends itself to repeat viewings, so these numbers are only going to grow.

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Photo by Stephen Vaughan

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Spoilers after the jump.

The movie revolves around the amazing performance of Heath Ledger as The Joker, and here he creates one of the great villains in screen history. There are no acid squirting flowers or joy buzzers here. This psychotic clown’s choice of weapon is a knife because of the sheer brutality he wishes to inflict.

This Joker isn’t just a criminal, he’s a violent, destructive force of nature. His mind games push Gotham’s heroes to the brink of insanity in some cases and completely over the edge in one. Batman, Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent are charged with figuring out how to use society’s rules to catch a man that doesn’t play by them. As Michael Caine’s Alfred explains to Bruce Wayne, “Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

Ledger has earned the posthumous Oscar nomination that is being talked about. He creates a character unlike any that has ever appeared on screen. He inspires laughter, tears and disgust all within moments of each other. In playing Gotham’s criminal element against those who would enforce the law, he exposes the fears and weaknesses of both groups.

Soon even the mafia that offered him free reign of Gotham City realizes The Joker can’t be trusted, controlled or contained. He makes a perfect foil for Batman because deep down neither man is stable.

Christian Bale again nails the tortured soul of the crimefighter while playing Bruce Wayne as the dim bulb oblivious to the world around him. This Batman’s true disguise isn’t the mask, it’s that Bruce Wayne is such an arrogant, selfish boob no one would possibly suspect him of being noble. In this film we learn just how much Batman has to sacrifice to save Gotham.

And sacrifice he does. This movie shows us that Batman can’t save everyone and that not everyone in Gotham thinks the Caped Crusdader should be the city’s savior.

Equally compelling is Aaron Eckhart’s descent into madness, also spurred on by The Joker. Gone are the two-sided suits, dual girlfriends and scene-chewing of Tommy Lee Jones’ Two-Face. The first time this villain’s face is shown sends shockwaves through the theater. The heroes are left to ponder what hope Gotham has if a man like Joker can do this to the best of them.

Morgan Freeman and Caine show these elder statesmen can hold their own with this generation’s best actors. They portray some of the few men that can tell Batman when he’s making a mistake and rightfully expect him to listen.

Gary Oldman, best known for some of his villainous roles, gives a powerful humanity to Commissioner Gordon. We feel his uncertainty about who to trust, which rules must be kept sacred and which have to be broken.

Some Batfans didn’t feel Nolan’s Batman Begins had enough action. Those fans will find little to complain about here. Though this pair doesn’t have superpowers, Batman and Joker’s battles tear the city apart even better than Hulk and Abomination did a few weeks ago. Nolan’s use of IMAX cameras for the action scenes is a smashing success and one of the many reasons this film will stand up throughout the years.

The bar for comic book adaptations has been raised almost impossibly high by Nolan and this cast. The Dark Knight is one of the best films ever, succeeding on multiple levels. It will make you think, make you gasp and make you expect more from those who take on action films.

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Photo by Stephen Vaughan

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Who’s your favorite billionaire crimefighting playboy? Who would win in a drinking contest? Will The Dark Knight shatter Iron Man’s box office take? I’m not going to ask who’d win a fight, because I’m sure Bats would have something in his utility belt to cause Tony a heart attack.

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After all, Batman beats up Superman all the time. Seriously, it’s not even close. Batman has beaten the likes of Superman, Darkseid and Amazo yet we’re still supposed to feel suspense when he fights the Penguin.

No, I really just want to know who you’d rather go hang out at the Playboy Mansion with.

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Bruce Wayne retiring for a while? But he took a year off in 52. Bats is kind of a type A personality. Two vacations in the same decade seems unlikely. But DC is teasing that someone else may pick up the Bat-Mantle. DC brass say Morrison has been working on this for years and recently we have seen an increase in “potential Batmen.”

There’s Batman’s son Damien. There’s the recently resurrected Jason Todd. As always, there’s the former Robin Dick Grayson. Maybe they all start wearing the cowl and duking it out. A theory on the message boards that makes some sense to me is that Batman is presumed dead and goes back to being the “urban legend” of the DC Universe.

Criminals would be even more scared of Batman if he’s supposed to be dead. They are, as you may have heard, a cowardly and superstitious lot.

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Photo by Stephen Vaughan

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