Another Batman movie you should know about

Let's talk about the Batman movie coming out this month. No, not "Dark Knight," the other one.

"Batman: Gotham Knight" is an animated anthology going straight to DVD on July 8, with six interlocking stories that form a continuity bridge between "Batman Begins" and "Dark Knight." The art and direction are in anime, or Japanese style, but there are enough familiar names from American comics and cartoons to make "Gotham Knight" a blend of East and West.

On the Japanese front, the direction was divvied up among Shojiro Nishimi, Futoshi Higashide, Hiroshi Morioka, Yasuhiro Aoki and Toshiyuki Kubooka -- all big names in the Land of the Rising Sun.

But the West is well represented. The credits include:

-- Story editor and writer Alan Burnett, who has been associated with Batman animation since Super Friends in 1983. Burnett's Bat-experience includes being a writer-producer on "Batman: The Animated Series," series producer on "Batman and Superman" and "Batman Beyond," supervising producer and story editor for "The Batman," co-producer and co-writer of "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm," supervising producer and writer for "Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman" and producer on "Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker."

He knows his bats.

-- Writer Josh Olson, who won an Academy Award for adapting John Wagner's graphic novel, "A History of Violence," to the movies.

-- Writer David S. Goyer, who wrote "Batman Begins" and "Dark Knight." He has been involved in a host of comic-related movies, including "Ghost Rider" and "Blade."

-- Writer Greg Rucka, who has written "Robin," "Gotham Central" and a host of other DC comics. He was responsible for creating Gotham Detective Crispus Allen, who appears in the movie.

-- Writer Brian Azzarello, who writes the Western "Loveless" and the crime comic "100 Bullets" for DC. He also has written "Batman: Broken City" and "Batman: Gotham Knights."

-- Producer Bruce Timm, who co-created and/or produced "Batman: The Animated Series," "Superman: The Animated Series," "The New Batman Adventures," "Batman Beyond," "Justice League" and "Justice League Unlimited."

-- Producer Michael Uslan, who has been attached as producer to most of the Bat-movies, from 1989's "Batman" to this year's "Dark Knight." He also wrote the graphic novel "Batman: Detective No. 27."

-- Actor Kevin Conroy, who has voiced the Dark Knight in the majority of his animated appearances since "Batman: The Animated Series" began in 1992.

Enough about credits, you say. What's "Gotham Knights" about? As noted, it includes six episodes:

1. "Have I Got a Story for You" (Olson). Chance encounters with the Gotham Guardian by a group of youngsters leave each kid with a different impression.

2. "Crossfire" (Rucka). Allen and the GCPD overcome their distrust of the Dark Knight detective. Rucka said he wanted to show the "revolutionary moment" at which Allen understood "exactly what Batman is in the context of Gotham."

3. "Field Test" (Jordan Goldberg). It's about where and how Batman got some of those wonderful toys.

4. "In Darkness Dwells" (Goyer). Killer Croc surfaces, along with The Scarecrow from "Batman Begins."

5. "Working Through the Pain" (Azzarello). The roll call of Bat-mentors grows with the addition of the mysterious and exotic Cassandra, an Indian woman who introduces Bruce Wayne to techniques for dealing with the physical and spiritual consequences of his mission.

6. "Deadshot" (Burnett). It stars the assassin Deadshot -- playing as a sort of anti-Batman -- and ties together the six chapters.

"The writers all pretty much had the same voice for Batman," Burnett said, "so I had to change very little dialogue -- just small fixes to tie up loose ends and reinforce transitions and connections between the stories."

Which should also connect to "Dark Knight," premiering July 18. So now there are two Bat-movies in July you have to see!

"Batman: Gotham Knight" will be available as a DVD, Blu-ray Disc, OnDemand, Pay-per-View or download July 8. A two-disc Special Edition DVD ($29.98) or Blu-ray Disc ($34.99) also will be available with more than 100 minutes of bonus features.

More information is available at http://warnervideo.com/batmangothamknight/, as well as Facebook and MySpace pages.

(Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics(at)aol.com or visit www.captaincomics.us.)