Dark Night: A True Batman Story

Dark Night: A True Batman Story is a DC/Vertigo animated film based on the semi-autobiographical graphic novel written by Paul Dini, centering around his near-fatal mugging in 1993 around the time he was writing his parts for Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and his struggle to get back to work afterwards.

The film will be distributed by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment: Vertigo, and will be rated R for violent images and coarse language.

Plot
In the 1990s, writer Paul Dini had a flourishing career penning the hugely popular Batman: The Animated Series and Tiny Toon Adventures. It was a golden era of television screenwriting, and Dini and his fellow writers were at the forefront of the glittering Hollywood scene. In one night, everything would change.

Walking home one evening, Dini was jumped and viciously beaten. With several broken bones and a shattered face, Dini experienced an arduous recovery process, hampered by the imagined antics of the villains he was writing for television, including the Joker, Harley Quinn, and the Penguin. But despite how bleak his circumstances were, or perhaps because of it, Dini also always imagined the Batman at his side, constantly chivvying him along during his darkest moments. While most know the Caped Crusader as the all-abiding icon of justice and authority, in this surprising story, we see Batman in a new light—not as the dark avenger, but the savior who helped a discouraged man recover mentally from a brutal attack that left him unable to face the world.

Cast

 * Paul Dini as himself
 * Kevin Conroy as Batman
 * Mark Hamill as the Joker
 * Tara Strong as Arleen Sorkin, Batgirl & Harley Quinn
 * Diane Pershing as Poison Ivy
 * Richard Moll as Two-Face
 * Jeffrey Combs as the Scarecrow
 * Paul Williams as the Penguin
 * John Glover as the Riddler
 * Maurice LaMarche as Mr. Freeze


 * Alan Burnett as himself
 * Eric Radomski as himself