The World’s Finest presents the latest in a series of studio-conducted interviews, provided by Warner Home Video, for the upcoming Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths direct-to-video animated feature. Continue reading below for the latest installment featuring actor William Baldwin.

A fan of the super hero genre since his youth when the Baldwin brothers would role play in their backyard, William Baldwin has proudly, enthusiastically undertaken the deep, gravelly vocal tones of the Dark Knight. While Baldwin has crafted a fine career in live-action film and television, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths represents only his second foray into voiceover for animation, having recorded a few episodes on the Nickelodeon series Danny Phantom.

Beyond ABCs Dirty Sexy Money television series, Baldwin has offered memorable turns in the feature films Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Flatliners, Backdraft and The Squid and the Whale, the latter of which earned (ironically) a Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths is an original story from award-winning animation/comics writer Dwayne McDuffie (Justice League). Bruce Timm (Superman Doomsday) is executive producer, and Lauren Montgomery (Wonder Woman, Green Lantern: First Flight) and Sam Liu (Superman/Batman: Public Enemies) are co-directors. The full-length animated film will be distributed by Warner Home Video as a Special Edition 2-disc version on DVD and Blu-Ray Hi-Def, as well as single disc DVD, and On Demand and Download.

Baldwin took time after his recording session to chat about visualization techniques in the sound booth, his childrens influence on his choice of roles, the super hero roughhouse role play by the Baldwin brothers (particularly Alec Baldwin) in their youth, and his very nearly being cast in the live-action role of Batman.

QUESTION:
What are your thoughts about joining the list of actors from Adam West and Michael Keaton to Val Kilmer and George Clooney to Kevin Conroy and Christina Bale that have played Batman?

WILLIAM BALDWIN:
I almost did join that group I was one of Joel Schumacher’s top choices when Val Kilmer wound up playing Batman. Tim Burton and Michael Keaton had left, so Joel had the luxury of replacing Michael Keaton and he told me that his four choices which was an eclectic, diverse array were Daniel Day Lewis, Ralph Feinnes, Val Kilmer and
me. I didnt even know it at the time he told me when I had a meeting with him later. The next time, when George Clooney did it, (Schumacher) said, You were on my original short list with those other three actors, but the studio went with Val and this time I’d like to go with you. And that Friday afternoon, I thought I was playing Batman and then Monday morning, the headlines in the trades said that George Clooney had gotten the part. So apparently, I did
actually come very close.

I was very excited to do this. I wasn’t really thinking about any past Batmans, but more of letting the material sort of dictate the choices that I make as an actor. What’s happening physically, what’s happening emotionally, what’s happening in the writing. Thats what really drives your performance.

QUESTION:
How did you choose to interpret the character? And was there anything you wanted to do differently than what had preceded you?

WILLIAM BALDWIN:
I was mostly influenced by whom I perceive Batman to be, with the possible exception that I think sometimes I allow a certain sensitivity or an emotional dynamic to give (the character) maybe a likeability or an accessibility. That’s almost an insecurity of mine as an actor to want to breathe a little bit of those types of emotions into characters. I think I find them more appealing and more likeable and more human. What I didn’t choose to do is to go towards the darkness of the way the original Batman series was intended. Because Batman, in the original comic series, was a lot darker than the character that was brought to life in television.

QUESTION:
Are there any personal attachments to Batman that make voicing this role special for you?

WILLIAM BALDWIN:
Its a number of things certainly the history of the character. The people that have been lucky enough to portray Batman on screen, or provide his voice, is a short list and it’s pretty cool. I’m in good company. I enjoyed it as a child, and the character still resonates for me. And I’m a father of an 8-year-old, a 7-year-old, and a 4-year-old my boy is sandwiched between his sisters, and he just loves the super heroes. We watch Justice League together. I try not to let him overdo it too much with television, but there’s great, wholesome messages that come out of that series. When I told him that I was playing Batman, his jaw dropped. I almost took him out of school today to have him come down here (for the recording session).

QUESTION:
How many times have you said I’m Batman in the past week?

WILLIAM BALDWIN:
Probably about a half a dozen, usually just joking with my kids and my wife. I was in the studio about a 9-iron from here, where my wife (Chynna Phillips) was recording, and all the band members were giving me different lines to say as Batman. Or having me improvise some lines. And we were having some wicked, twisted fun with it (he laughs).

QUESTION:
It seemed you were quite focused in the booth, conveying all the physical and emotional traits as Batman. How immersed in the role did you feel?

WILLIAM BALDWIN:
I take it seriously. And I enjoy it, especially recreating the sound effects of the fight sequences and stuff like that. One thing that was interesting to me was how clean they need the lines and, thus, how specific I had to keep my relationship to the microphone, and making sure there weren’t any other sort of ancillary sounds. When I’m doing looping for a film, I guess it’s sort of a method approach. I’ll put things inside my mouth and try to recreate the circumstances or the emotions that existed while I was performing. There’s nothing better than when you’re grunting from lifting something to try and create that sensation. I do a lot of visualization, too. So when youre having the confrontation with Lex Luthor or Superwoman, sometimes I’ll look through the mike into the booth to somebody in the room. I’ll look at them and just sort of imagine it in my mind, to just pick somebody and lock into that, giving off this energy to them. It’s very helpful for me to have that specificity to lock into.

QUESTION:
Did the Baldwin brothers play super hero games growing up?

WILLIAM BALDWIN:
Youll have to get my brother Alec in here sometime he’s got the scars to prove it. Back in the early 60s, he tied a bathroom towel around his neck as a cape and was doing his Superman (impression), and he went through a plate glass sliding door. He ran right through it. He has these big V-shaped scars under his bicep and his forearm from
all the stitches that he took when he was five or six years old.

So yeah, we did play super hero games. And my family was pretty rough. I mean, when we were playing super heroes, if there was a cartoon where somebody got thrown off the roof and they landed on the ground with a thud, then Stephen or I got thrown off the roof into a pile of leaves, or into somebody’s swimming pool.

QUESTION:
You rode along with the Chicago Fire Department to prepare for Backdraft. What kind of research went into this performance?

WILLIAM BALDWIN:
First of all, some parts lend them self to that type of research and preparation more than others. Secondly, I had a fairly deep understanding of this character because I’ve been watching the shows and films and the character for 40 years. So if I felt like I didn’t have enough of an understanding, I probably would have postponed (the recording session). But when I was looking at the script on a plane a few days ago, I felt it was kind of a piece of cake based on my understanding of the character, and really fueled my attraction to the character and the piece. There’s a lot of two- and three-line exchanges rather than two- and three-paragraph exchanges. There weren’t a lot of monologues that required a lot of line memorization, or anything incredibly challenging emotionally. I just had to get into the rhythm of how the character speaks. Batmans spectrum of emotion is fairly narrow for a number of reasons. He’s always in command, he’s always in control, he’s always holding it together, and he’s pretty tough relative to the rest of us
in this room.

QUESTION:
Does the Gotham City/New York connection hold anything special for a lifelong New Yorker?

WILLIAM BALDWIN:
There’s always been something cool about (Gotham City) being based on New York its where I’m from, where I grew up, and Ive spent my whole career there. I remember referring to it as Gotham not Gotham City, either more often than I called it Manhattan or New York. I’d be on the West Coast finishing a meeting, and somebody would ask, Where you going? And Id always say Back to Gotham.

QUESTION:
Did having children that enjoy the genre influence your desire to give voice to an animated character at this point in your career?

WILLIAM BALDWIN:
That definitely motivates a lot of the choices that I make as an actor now. I’m looking to be involved with projects that are family oriented. Not exclusively, but I’d like to do some things that my children can see. My brother Alec has done a series of films over the last couple years Madagascar and Thomas (the Train) and things like that and the kids got really, really excited about that. And we’re good friends with Chazz Palminteri, and Chazz does a lot of animated voiceover work. When they hear his voice, they really get excited.

I was doing a television series for two seasons, so we would watch that together as a family. Sometimes I would let the kids stay up, and they really got a kick out of it. I did a film last year with Henry Winkler called A Plumm Summer that won a couple of family film festival audience awards. So yes, I’m definitely looking for some choices. Because the films in my past, like Flatliners and Internal Affairs, Three Of Hearts and Backdraft and Sliver, Fair Game and The Squid And The Whale and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, these are all films that my kids aren’t quite ready to see.

QUESTION:
You’ve tackled this legendary comic character. What other roles would you like to fill?

WILLIAM BALDWIN:
I’d like to surprise some people maybe and do the voice of something that’s much more charactery. It could be much more ethnic. Jewish or Irish or a New Yorker. I have a lot of fun with that stuff. I’d even like to sing. I wouldn’t want to sing in the way that you would need Mariah Carey to sing, but just have a character sing and have fun with that, too.

QUESTION:
What were your impressions of this animation experience versus some of your previous experiences?

WILLIAM BALDWIN:
I’m getting better at it. I’m very tough on myself, so I’m never quick to say that I felt like it was great when it wasn’t. I usually have my own sort of standards that I set for myself. It felt like I was able to achieve my objectives more quickly. I think that comes with maturity as a performer and, uh, it’s nice to know. Because there’s been times where I’ve done voiceover work where they would normally allot two hours for someone who can bang it out, and they would have to allot three or three and a half or four hours. Its not that I couldn’t do it quickly, it’s just that I’m such a perfectionist. I tend to be saying Let me try that again. Let’s do one more one more one more. I think I said, Let me do one more about 10 times today, which wasn’t a lot. Sometimes I say it 100 times. I think everybody thought that it felt right, it felt good, it sounded great. Its always fun, but I want to get it right.

QUESTION:
Is it difficult acting alone in the booth?

WILLIAM BALDWIN:
It forces you to hone in and focus on the performance aspects and the emotional aspects of what you’re trying, and visual them in your head. Acting is not acting, it’s reacting. You’re reacting to what somebody’s saying and how they’re saying it. That was great about the television show that I just did (Dirty Sexy Money) because the props department would tie me in when we would do something like a telephone conversation. When I had one with Donald Sutherland, I didn’t have to come into the studio to do it. They would just have me call on my cell phone from my home in Santa Barbara, and I would call in when the camera was rolling and I would literally have the conversation with him. In the old days, sometimes you would have the other actor come in on his off day just to read that telephone conversation off camera. Then that changed and you would wind up reading this telephone conversation with the script supervisor who (A) is not an actor, and (B) does not know what the choices of the actor are going to be when they shoot his side of the telephone conversation in two weeks. That can be very difficult and very stilted when they cut that telephone conversation together sometimes you can tell by the way someone’s reacting to a line that they weren’t hearing the actor do it on that day. They just interpreted what they thought the actor was going to do on that day, and they were wrong. I’m talking about stuff that’s very subtle, like someone raising their voice a little bit in the reaction
to the other person. Little things. But thats acting. Youre not just reacting to the words, you’re reacting to the way the words were said. Was it threatening? Was it menacing? Was it intimidating? Was it submissive? It’s all based on little layers and subtleties.

QUESTION:
Can you compare acting on camera to acting in the booth, and how Andrea Romano was able to guide you through those differences?

WILLIAM BALDWIN:
It’s sort of a mixed bag. On camera, youre usually acting to another actor who you’re looking at, who’s in the room with you. Today, I was in the sound room and Andrea was behind the glass. And shes not an actor. But for a director, from a performance standpoint, she was giving me more than enough. What really helped was the specificity of her notes. When something wasn’t right, she would give me a note that would 180 it, or she would give me a little subtle note. That was great. You’re forgetting to add in this layer or Give me a little bit more urgency. At one point, I throw a punch and Superwoman catches my fist and starts to squeeze my fist. And I said, Do you want me to wince and scream in pain when she’s crushing my fist? And am I supposed to fight the temptation of revealing to a woman because wouldn’t Batman wouldn’t want to give away that power that a woman is causing the pain. I mean, it would be different if Lex Luthor or Superman were doing this, right? So we sort of hashed that out and found those sort of things as we were going along.

Suggested captions for attached images:

William Baldwin.jpg
William Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) voices the role of Batman in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the next DC Universe animated original movie. The film will be distributed February 23, 2010 by Warner Home Video. (Photo courtesy of Gary Miereanu)

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Batman stands tall in the face of danger brought on by the powerful Superwoman in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the next DC Universe animated original movie. The film will be distributed February 23, 2010 by Warner Home Video. William Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) provides the voice of Batman.

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Batman ponders the misguided plot of Owlman and formulates his move to foil Owlmans plan in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the next DC Universe animated original movie. The film will be distributed February 23, 2010 by Warner Home Video. William Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) provides the voice of Batman.

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Batman launches a batarang attack on Owlman during a brutal battle between equally-matched (and equipped) foes in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the next DC Universe animated original movie. The film will be distributed February 23, 2010 by Warner Home Video. William Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) provides the voice of Batman

DC SUPER HEROES and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and DC Comics. (s09)

For more information, images and updates, please visit the films official website at www.JUSTICELEAGUECRISIS.com.

A co-production of Warner Premiere, DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation, the direct-to-video Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths animated feature debuts February 23rd, 2010 on DVD and Blu-ray disc.

Stay tuned for further Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths updates, including exclusive content and more.

Discuss this in The DC Animation Forum!

The World’s Finest presents the latest studio-conducted interview, provided by Warner Home Video, for the upcoming Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths direct-to-video animated feature. Continue reading below for the latest installment featuring directors Sam Liu and Lauren Montgomery.

When youre dealing with a story so huge that it spans multiple Earths, its sometimes a good idea to arm yourself with multiple directors, as did the production team behind Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, an all-new DC Universe Animated Original PG-13 Movie from Warner Premiere, DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation.

Lauren Montgomery and Sam Liu, the animation directors of the past three DC Universe films, have combined their talents to bring Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths to the screen as a blockbuster tale of super heroes and super villains engaged in the ultimate battle of parallel worlds and, through a diabolical plan launched by Owlman, puts the balance of all existence in peril.

Montgomery has been an active member of the directing team behind several of the DCU films, initially guiding the middle section of Superman Doomsday before accepting the sole directorial role for both Wonder Woman and Green Lantern: First Flight. After directing several ventures, including Hulk Versus Thor for rival Marvel, Liu made his long-form directorial debut for the DCU series on Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.

As the films lead characters are armed with similar talents while coming from distinctly different perspectives, the same can be said of the two directors of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. Both Montgomery and Liu are relatively soft-spoken individuals, yet both are opinionated in their approach to animation, diligent in their work ethic, and dedicated to achieving the best possible outcome. Over the course of making the film, they came to learn a great deal about the others vision, and the result is even greater than the sum of their talents.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths is an original story from award-winning animation/comics writer Dwayne McDuffie (Justice League). Bruce Timm (Superman Doomsday) is executive producer, and Lauren Montgomery (Wonder Woman, Green Lantern: First Flight) and Sam Liu (Superman/Batman: Public Enemies) are co-directors. The full-length animated film will be distributed by Warner Home Video as a Special Edition 2-disc version on DVD and Blu-Ray Hi-Def, as well as single disc DVD, and On Demand and Download.

Montgomery and Liu paused from their current DCU projects (shhh its a secret) to discuss their thoughts on the creation of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. FYI: The interviews were conducted separately. Montgomerys answers are listed first because, well, decorum dictates that ladies go first

QUESTION:
How did you two go about co-directing Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY:
We kind of just went over the whole film together and it was really good to get two different points of view as a check and balance for each other. If we disagreed, we found compromises that would work. If one of us felt strongly about something, we just traded off Sam would take a sequence he felt strongly about, then Id take one I wanted. But for the most part, we agreed. We both work in such different ways, it was interesting to see how someone else works and
learn from it.

SAM LIU:
We went through the film front to back, and if we ran into a problem or an area where either of us had an issue, usually where we thought it could be stronger or could be playing better, we usually solved it right on the spot. If we got to a section that was requiring a lot more revisions, one of us would jump on it and the other would move the rest of the film forward until we hit another rough spot. So that was our process.

QUESTION:
What have you learned from each other?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY:
Sam breaks things down a lot, hes very analytical. I tend not to. He spends a lot of time thinking about the story and getting into all the nooks and crannies of it, and I like to work with the general story. Hell read the whole book, Ill read the back of the book. I try to get the emotional points down so people can understand them, but Sam will go even deeper to use shots and set-ups to drive the point home, sometimes metaphorically. He thinks harder than I do.

SAM LIU:
Our processes are very different. I like getting into a script and breaking things down. Maybe I dont have the best ideas, but Im pretty good at recognizing where things are needed. I really liked the back and forth process (with Lauren), talking about ideas and batting it back and forth to find a good solution. Lauren is more instinctual, she works more from the gut. And I think she works off reaction rather than an intellectual breakdown. Im the other way by process. But I do feel like sometimes I over-analyze things, when sometimes its almost like the emotional flow of the movie is good enough. Lauren gets that. Sometimes logic can be bypassed if the scene is engaging enough, or interesting enough. Itll bridge gaps and you dont need to analytically fix all those gaps.

QUESTION:
What do you think you might have taught each other?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY:
I think Sam stresses out slightly less when Im around. He stresses and I dont. I think I calm him down a little bit. But when hes alone, he stresses out just as much. Hopefully I helped with that.

SAM LIU:
I dont think I taught her anything (he laughs). Shes a free-flowing, shoot-from-the-hip kind of person, and Im kind of an angster I nitpick things. I like getting into the story, and from there some things do need working out things related to the emotional journey of a character that need to be highlighted or punctuated to set something up for later. Im a stickler for things like that. And I think she saw those things.

I do stress, though and there are times when Im freaking out about something and she puts me at total ease. And then theres times when Im freaking out and shes fighting me on it, and it makes it worse. I think were both control freaks in our own way, its just a difference in approach. I fixate on a lot of things, and she thinks things are just good enough, so lets move on. We have an innate concept about the overall picture, but she focuses more on the acting and poses and timing and movement, and I think more on structure. I guess theres a good balance.

QUESTION:
Do you have a favorite scene in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY:
Theres a fight between Wonder Woman and Olympia that I thought was really beautifully animated. Thats always fun to watch. It was boarded well, but the overseas animators took the drawings from the boards and really plussed it out. I think they just enjoy animating girl fights overseas because those scenes always come back looking good.

SAM LIU:
More than one scene, I like the overall relatability of the Justice League characters. There was great character interaction. When I watch movies, I like something that has an emotional connection, and this film definitely does.

Specifically, I think the spectacle of these evenly matched supers fighting was really cool. Superman versus Ultraman. Flash fighting someone equally as fast. Strengths against strengths. Jay Oliva boarded the last fight sequence and the Superwoman-Wonder Woman fight is great. Theyre both strong, super powerful women and I think it was brutal enough as is, but the way Jay made Wonder Woman use the lasso to slam Superwoman to the ground is pretty amazing.

The battle between Owlman and Batman is awesome, too, because its sort of this weird intellectual standoff. Owlman is so far into his psychosis as to how the universe operates, its very existential. His concept is crazy, but the way he reasons out the technology of how things work and the way he thinks, it gave us great room to improvise Batmans reaction. And then when they actually fight, its brutal. They do these gadget fights, sort of a modern ninja battle. The sound effects on the planet, the colors, the way its animated, it all works really well. And James Woods voice is perfect most of the Crime Syndicate is very thuggish, theyre all about stealing money. But Owlman has created the ultimate plan to annihilate everybody, and James Woods does this great build-up. Its great acting. He plays Owlman as a little bit off and kind of creepy, but not sinister creepy. His cadence is great, and his voice is almost charming in a way. It was a good mix of all the things I thought wed have a problem with if we went too far one way or the other. Its a great, tight sequence and Im very happy the way it all came together.

QUESTION:
What were the challenges of directing this film?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY:
It was a challenge because we had a really large cast of characters lots of main characters and they all needed a decent amount of screen time. Both the good guys and the bad. We had to make sure the audience got to know each of those characters and make sure they had a presence in the film that was important, and that was a challenge.

SAM LIU:
Definitely the size of the cast and how to give enough screen time to everyone. At one point, Green Lantern was a little light on having enough important things to do. We needed to add a bit for Lex Luthor, too, and I still dont think we did enough. We added a fight to show that Lex can fight, too, and tried to beef him up a bit. But there just wasnt enough screen time to accommodate everyone.

QUESTION:
Do you have a favorite character?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY:
Superwoman just because shes so wrong. Shes a bully, but shes got the muscle to back it up. Shes everything you shouldnt be, but is fun to work with.

QUESTION:
What skills you learned or developed on past projects were you able to apply to this film?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY:
We had the same animation studio that did Wonder Woman, so we were able to draw from the work done on Wonder Woman and improve on that. Overall, the animation was good in Wonder Woman, but there was some poor stuff, too. I think they really improved they saw what we responded to in Wonder Woman and they tried to do what they knew we liked, and it was good.

SAM LIU:
I think, this whole process was better for me this time, especially working with Bruce (Timm) and Lauren. I was able to let go a little bit and not have to over-think things, and still know that things would work out. I generally stress over everything until the very last minute. With Lauren, I sort of learned that you can say thats enough and move on to the next thing. I appreciate Lauren and her patience, and that were still friends. In the end, you take care of the important things and everything will work out.

QUESTION:
So, are you happy being an animation director?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY:
Its never been an easy job. It can be draining. But its still a really fun job. I mean, we get to work on great stories with iconic characters. I know people who would kill to work on Batman and Superman. When you think of it that way well, if I werent working in this job, Id definitely want to. A little bit of the excitement is taken off because Ive done it so many times, but its still a really cool thing to do.

SAM LIU:
I love doing long-form animation. Ive been offered to go back to TV series, but I like this better. Direct-to-videos are hard you have a short amount of time to create a world from the ground up every time and, once its done, it goes on the shelf and you move on but Im so glad I dont have to deal with BSP (Broadcast, Standards & Practices the networks content watchdogs). What I love most is that you get to tell stories people can love, you can have emotional pain and great action, and you get to work with things that are too adult for childrens broadcasting. Thats the stuff that I like telling full stories. So Im very happy.

QUESTION:
Whats your favorite part of the job?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY:
The best part is when you see the film start to come back (from overseas animation studios) and its looking good. Thats a really nice part. When you see it coming together to be something good, thats very satisfying. You know all your hard work has paid off.

SAM LIU:
I think it has to be working with the story and the characters. I love the development of the characters and how they fit into the story, helping their growth, even if its subtle or small. I like finding the core of what our story is about and trying to push that story. I think most of the time its about the characters and their conflicts in the beginning, and how they resolve those conflicts. On this film, we were able to do that a lot even after production had been underway particularly with Batmans motivation, and showing why it was important for him to stay behind and get Watchtower online. Superman believes one thing; Batman has a different opinion. Its a conflict, and it pays off later.

QUESTION:
Youve been living with this film for well over a year. Can you still watch and enjoy it?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY:
I enjoy it most with a new audience. You get to see their reactions, and it makes me look at it in a new light. I enjoy watching all of our movies, which is a good thing its nice to be able to watch what youve done and feel good about it.

SAM LIU:
Its hard sometimes, because when youre making a movie, theres so many things you want and wish for, and you still tend to see the things that are missing. In this case, Im comfortable watching because there are so many things that were done right. Im not comfortable watching some of my older stuff. But this is one of the best movies Ive ever worked on, and its very satisfying. I think theres the right amount of action, good conflict, good closure, and intelligent characters. Theyre not just one-dimensional characters. So its satisfying to watch.

QUESTION:
Whats the DC Universe film you hope to direct some day?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY:
I want that Aquaman project, but I doubt well ever make it.

SAM LIU:
Id love to do Sandman from the Vertigo line. I dont know what kind of story that would be, but Id love to work with Neil Gaiman because I really loved those comics.

QUESTION:
Now that you can see the final product, how do the voices match their animated characters?

LAUREN MONTGOMERY:
Gina Torres and James Woods are probably my favorites. Everybody loves Owlman. Hes such a unique character. Gina is really good as Superwoman she has this strong, seductive, confident voice, and it makes you fear and respect her. Mark Harmon is really good as Superman. At first I was worried because I thought his age might come through, but his voice really works well. Its funny because when we started watching the voice with the animation, it struck us how you could hear little tones of George Newbern and Tim Daly two of our regular Supermans in his voice, which is pretty cool.

SAM LIU:
I really liked Mark Harmon hes got a gentle streak and it goes really well with the strength of his voice. When he was in the
recording booth, I thought he might be too gentle, but it works even in the scenes where he has to be more assertive or powerful. I think it works really well because it never crosses that line of him being mean or not genuine or sneaky. Its very pure, just as Superman should be.

I also thought Josh Keaton did a great job as Flash. Hes hilarious. So much of these movies are based on the acting, and Josh really sold it. The chemistry between characters was good, too. James Woods and Gina Torres have this strange relationship, and their acting makes them real characters. They really engaged their personalities. Thats what good actors do. The voices in this cast really flesh out the characters and give them texture.

Suggested captions for attached images:

LaurenMontgomery.jpg
Lauren Montgomery is co-director of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the next DC Universe animated original movie. The film will be distributed February 23, 2010 by Warner Home Video. (Photo courtesy of Gary Miereanu)

SamLiu.jpg
Sam Liu is co-director of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the next DC Universe animated original movie. The film will be distributed February 23, 2010 by Warner Home Video. (Photo courtesy of Gary
Miereanu)

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Batman prepares to beam Flash (on screen) aboard Watchtower in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the next DC Universe animated original movie. The film will be distributed February 23, 2010 by Warner Home Video.

Owl_SW_02.jpg
Owlman and Superwoman, as voiced by James Woods and Gina Torres, respectively, have become shining examples of the perfect match between animated character and actor/voice, according to Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths co-directors Lauren Montgomery and Sam Liu. Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the next DC Universe animated original movie, will be distributed February 23, 2010 by Warner Home Video.

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Wonder Woman engages in a battle with her evil counterpart Olympia in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, the next DC Universe animated original movie. The film will be distributed February 23, 2010 by Warner Home Video.DC SUPER HEROES and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and DC Comics.

For more information, images and updates, please visit the films official website at www.JUSTICELEAGUECRISIS.com.

A co-production of Warner Premiere, DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation, the direct-to-video Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths animated feature debuts February 23rd, 2010 on DVD and Blu-ray disc.

Stay tuned for further Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths updates, including exclusive content and more.

Discuss this in The DC Animation Forum!

Click on the thumbnails below for a closer look at the assorted package artwork for the upcoming home video releases of the Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths direct-to-video animated feature.

Blu-ray Disc artwork — Two-Disc Special Edition DVD artwork — Single-Disc DVD artwork

Stay tuned for further Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths updates, including exclusive content and more.

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Note: Check out Marvel Animation Age to view package artwork for the assorted home video releases of the upcoming “Planet Hulk” direct-to-video animated feature, due for a February 2010 release.