Superman / Doomsday (updated)

One of the announcements that really tickled my fancy a few months back was the Warner Brothers is about to start pumping out a bunch of straight-to-DVD animated films based on classic DC Comics storylines. Now, that in itself wasn't as much news as much as the revelation that these were going to be PG-13 rated and more grown-up than their past DC animation offerings. They're going for the Hellboy: Sword of Storms crowd.

Anyway, we finally had the official announcement of the first one, giving a release date and everything! The first one is....

Superman: Doomsday, which will be based upon the now classic The Death of Superman.

They unveiled a new voice cast, too. See, to go with the newer, darker, more grown-up storylines, they got a new voice cast. That's pissing off a lot of nerds, as they want those who have been the voices for the past few years to keep on doing it. I'm not one of those nerds. I just want a good movie. Our new voice cast is:

Adam Baldwin as Superman. Baldwin is, of course, best remembered as the lovably psychotic mercenary Jayne on Firefly. (Gotta admit, I'm having a little bit of trouble picturing the hero of Canton as the Man of Steel)

Anne Heche is Lois Lane. This I can see.

And James Marsters will be giving voice to Lex Luthor. Marsters is still best known as the vampire Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Addition Superman note: he also played Brainiac on Smallville.)

But let's not forget the most important thing of all: it comes out on September 18.

Updated 2 hours later

Got word on some of the bonus material that'll be on the DVD. You can look forward to 2 documentaries:

Clash of the Juggernauts is a documentary about the whole Death of Superman storyline and the media coverage it garnered at the time. Features interviews with the actual comic book artists who wrote and drew the stories, the DC management who made the decision, and the comic book historians who place its context in comic book history.

The Artists Playground is your standard "making of" featurette, chronicalling every aspect of the making of the film.

And, a trailer for the next straight-to-video animated film, Justice League: The New Frontier.