Todd Phillips is currently filming Joker, and it looks set to be the grown-up Batman movie we’ve been waiting for years to see. Except Batman (probably) won’t be in it, of course.
Joker will tell the origin story of the Clown Prince of Crime, set in a Gotham City that will resemble the New York City of the 1970s and 80s and it will be completely removed from the rest of the DCEU.
Apparently, Warner Bros. plans to “expand the canon of DC properties and create unique storylines with different actors playing the iconic characters.” This vague description makes it sound like the studio is pursuing a big screen version of DC Comics’ “Elseworlds” line, which delivered classics like the Victorian-era Batman vs. Jack the Ripper story Gotham by Gaslight (which recently had an animated adaptation) and the communist Superman story, Red Son. This kind of approach would certainly allow the studio to both forge their own identity and carry on with their mission statement of allowing directors with strong cinematic identities to steer these movies. This could be their opportunity to experiment with an R-rating, too…
Here’s everything we know so far about Joker, with more as we get it.
Joker cast
Joaquin Phoenix will play the Joker, which is encouraging news in itself – as the actor has pretty much managed to avoid all big studio films since Gladiator, sticking to indies and dramas with worthy, weighty scripts. The fact that this role lured him back into the mainstream means it must be pretty special (or pretty well paid…).
You can get your first look at Phoenix as the pre-Joker version of the Joker (his name is apparently Arthur) right here:
As is appropriate for a movie that originally had Martin Scorsese on board as one of its producers, Rober De Niro will be in the movie as “a talk show host who is somehow instrumental in the Joker’s origin,” according to THR.
Marc Maron (who has been nothing but brilliant on GLOW) is in the movie as “an agent on Robert De Niro’s talk show who plays a part in booking Phoenix’s character, and eventually causes him to go mad and become the Clown Prince of Crime.” (via Variety). “It is true people,” Maron told the WTF Podcast. “I have been added to the cast of the new Joker movie being directed by Todd Phillips, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Robert De Niro. Two of the greatest actors that have ever graced the screen… And honestly, it’s a pretty great script.”
Zazie Beetz will play “a single mother who catches the interest of the man who will become the clown prince of crime.” (via THR)
The Wrap reported that Frances Conroy will play the Joker’s mother, Penny. They also report that Zazie Beetz will play “a single mother who catches the attention of the Joker prior to his transformation into the nihilistic Gotham City villain,” which might seem to offer some echoes of The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland.
There had been plans for Alec Baldwin to play Batman’s father, Thomas Wayne, but for whatever reason, they fell through – and Brett Cullen was annouced to take his place in a role that’s rumoured to have a fair few Trump overtones.
Joker release date
Warner Bros. and DC have slated an October 4, 2019 release date for Joker. The announcement also came with word that the official title for the project is Joker (and not, “The Joker”, as everyone previously thought).
Joker story
The official word on this movie (via THR) is that it’s an “exploration of a man disregarded by society [that] is not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale.”
Todd Phillips (The Hangover, War Dogs) is directing and co-writing the script with Scott Silver (8 Mile, The Fighter) – marking a big departure for the guy most famous for making lad comedies. 2016’s War Dogs proved that he can handle material with a bit more heft, but it’s still an unusual choice of director to make a film that feels like it needs as much grit as possible.
Speaking to Collider, Phoenix said the script feels very unique, very scary and very safe in Phillips’ hands:
“It is its own world in some ways, and maybe, mostly, it scares the f**king shit out of me or something. It might as well be the thing that scares you the most! I think more than anything, and probably the most important thing, is that Todd seems very passionate about it and very giving, and so that’s exciting. I think, underneath the excitement of these films, and the size of them, there are these incredible characters that are dealing with real-life struggles.”
But what makes things really interesting is that Martin Scorsese originally signed-on to produce, and that the whole conceit is completely removed from the DCEU. In fact, the movie had previously been described as a crime thriller set in an early 1980s Gotham City, with the plan being to evoke Martin Scorsese’s classic neo noir, Taxi Driver (1976), except, you know… with a lot more smiling. But a very different classic Scorsese movie might be one of the touchstones for this movie: The King of Comedy. Scorsese is no longer on board (due to scheduling clashes), but his producing partner, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, is taking his place – running things from Marty’s production wing, Sikelia Productions. alongside Bradley Cooper of all people. Was Cooper originally interested in a part? Could he have been the Joker?
The Wrap had reported that this version of the Joker is “a failed 1980s comedian who becomes the clown prince of crime after bombing with audiences.” That also sounds an awful lot like what was depicted in The Killing Joke, the Alan Moore/Brian Bolland Joker story that details how a struggling comedian falls in with the criminal element… and ultimately falls into a vat of disfiguring chemicals.
The fact that his name is ‘Arthur’ seems to throw out the rumours of a link between the film and the Tim Burton Batman too – as the same character in that movie was called Jack Napier.
It’s also been suggested that Joker will kickstart Warner Bros. new DC arm (maybe called “DC Black”) and that it could pave the way for other grown-up comic book adaptations to come that could potentially crossover with each other in a shared universe. With Superman and Batman in dissary at the moment, it doesn’t sound like a bad idea…