Did you know that Warner Bros. is making an origin movie for the Joker?
Not realizing what a terrible idea it is to give a definitive origin to one of the most enigmatic characters in the DC universe, the movie is being directed by Todd Phillips, who also co-wrote the movie with Scott Silver.
The newest update on this project is the fact that they cast Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker.
Joaquin Phoenix is known for being in the movie, ‘Signs’, and for being the villain in ‘Gladiator’. He is also known for having an amazing last name.
In their announcement, Warner Bros. described the movie as an “exploration of a man disregarded by society [that] is not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale,” which is a sentence with a lot of fancy words that is essentially meaningless.
That same description could apply to ‘Robocop’, ‘the Dark Knight’, ‘Blade’ (and ‘Blade 2’, which is still amazing), ‘Batman v Superman’, ‘Iron Man 2 & 3’, ‘Terminator 2’, and even ‘Toy Story 4’… sort of.
There is currently no release date for this project.
Also, to add confusion to this whole mess, Jared Leto is also going to still be playing the Joker in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), which is the fancy name they call their cinematic universe.
This probably means that this movie is either a prequel or not connected to those movies. We’re going to need a flowchart at some point to keep track of it all.
The movie led by Phoenix is rumoured to be part of a slate of films referred to as “DC Black” or “DC Dark”, as if the movies weren’t dark enough already.
Despite the lack of release date, the movie is expected to come out in 2019 and this movie fan is definitely not hyped.
What on Earth could this movie possibly bring to the DCEU or DC’s film slate that could make it any better?
Even Christopher Nolan knew not to give the Joker an origin, simply having him pop up on screen and cause mayhem in what most regard as the best take on the character on screen since… ever.
In any case, Phoenix is an actor of some merit and there’s still a chance that this movie might surprise us.
However, that chance is probably smaller than the air vent Luke had to shoot through to destroy the Death Star in ‘A New Hope’.
Header Image Source: SyFy
