One of the main characters in Batman’s mythology who is most affected by The Joker’s behavior inThe Killing Jokeis Barbara Gordon, a.k.a. Batgirl. And yetAlan MooreandBrian Bolland’sacclaimed graphic novel presupposes that its reading audience had a working knowledge of the character, one that wouldn’t require any introductory information or explanation as to why they should care about what happens to Ms. Gordon at the hands of the Clown Prince of Crime. The R-rated animated adaptation, however, thinks there’s room for improvement.
Make no mistake, the feature-length version ofThe Killing Jokewill faithfully adapt the beloved graphic novel, as promised by producerBruce Timmin a recent chat withEmpire. The longtime Batman and DC Comics properties producer offered up plenty of insight behind the scenes ofThe Killing Joke, but the most interesting bit concerns the additional material front loaded onto the story before the adaptation, in the truest sense of the word, really kicks off.
Here’s what Timm had to say about the decision to fold in a new Batgirl story:
We thought if we were going to expand this to feature length, we didn’t want to just pad out the original story by putting in a bunch of stuff between sequences of the story, because it’s literally a whole other half of movie that we could add. So we took that opportunity to basically tell a Batgirl story, which we don’t often get a chance to do these days. And it was great, because we could spend more time with her as a character and get to understand what she’s all about and how she’s similar to Batman in some ways, and really different in others. They come at the crime fighting thing from two completely different places. The good side of that is we get to spend more time with her and learn that she’s an interesting character. We get to really like her. The bad side of that is that we get to like hersomuch that whenThe Killing Jokepart of the story happens, it’s, like, “Oh, no!",becausewe really like her. So it’s a double-edged sword.
Personally, I think that’s a great approach. It’s flexible storytelling like this which allows for a proper “adaptation” and not just a “translation” across media. How well the execution of this idea is pulled off remains to be seen, butMark Hamill, a.k.a. The Joker, seems to be on board:
I can’t imagine how people are going to react to this, because I’m aKilling Jokepurist. When they first talked about it, I said, “The only way we can do this is as a book on tape so that we honor every comma, every word, every letter, every syllable of Alan Moore’s script. We can add music and special effects to enhance it.” They kind of said, “Whatareyou talking about? Nobody is doing this as a book on tape. It’s not commercially viable for us to do it that way. See if you may get the rights and record it in your basement or something if that’s what you want to do. This story has to be expanded.” If we just adaptedThe Killing Jokeas an animated film, it would maybe be fifty-five minutes. They’ve actually done a really incredible job of supplementing it with Barbara Gordon/Batgirl material.
And if you’re worried that new material will some how diminish or cheapen the source, or that it will be out of sync with the tone of the main storyline, Hamill’s comment should put your fears to rest:
Even that surprised me, how edgy the Batgirl material was. This isnotyour father’s Batman. The one regret I have is that if I was nine years old, there’s nothing I would rather see more, yet it reallyisn’tfor kids. I hope people understand when they say it’s R-rated, theymeanit.
Timm was less concerned with the new story and more concerned with adapting the controversial moments from the graphic novel itself:
I mean the idea of adapting this story always kind of terrified me, because of how relentlessly grim and bleak it is. And what happens to Barbara Gordon in the story is very controversial to this day.
I didn’t think it possible, but the inclusion of new material actually makes me even more excited to see the final version ofThe Killing Joke, but I’m sure some of you may feel differently. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below! Also, be sure to head over to Empire for more from Timm, Hamill, andKevin Conroy.Tara Strongalso stars as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, withRay Wiseas Commissioner James Gordon in the adaptation directed bySam Liu(Batman: Year One,Justice League vs Teen Titans). Look for it on home video:
Get caught up with all of our recent coverage ofBatman: The Killing Jokeat the following links:
