Joaquin Phoenix Comments on Landing the Joker Role

Yesterday it was made official that Joaquin Phoenix will be taking on the lead role in Todd Phillips Joker movie, and now Phoenix has opened up about approaching the character and the passion behind the project.

Phoenix tells Collider:

"I take a lot of time and consideration when making decisions and what I'm gonna work on always… So, in some ways, the process, which is obviously reading a script and meeting a filmmaker and then continuing to have meetings and discussions with Todd [Phillips]. I think he's very impressive and he seems to have a very interesting understanding of this world and what he's trying to say. And so there is something very appealing about that and working with him on this particular project. It feels unique, it is its own world in some ways, and maybe, mostly, it scares the fucking shit out of me or something. It might as well be the thing that scares you the most."

So far, we know very little about this origin movie. For one, we know it's set outside of the DCEU timeline, and that it will have a smaller budget than usual comic book films. Phoenix continues:

"I wouldn't quite classify this as like any genre. I wouldn't say it's a superhero movie, or a studio movie or a … It feels unique, and I think more than anything, and probably the most important thing, is 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. And sometimes that is uncovered and exposed, and sometimes it isn't, and so I always felt, like, there were characters in comics that were really interesting and deserve the opportunity to be kind of studied. And so I think that's what Todd sees appealing about this idea."

This Joker film is said to be the first in the line of DC films being branded DC Dark or DC Black. Personally, I'm just hoping that they decide to just call it DC Elseworlds to keep true to the comics, and to not box in the potential for other spinoff stories. Elseworlds don't always have to be gritty and dark.

Joker is set to shoot later this year, but so far, there hasn't been a release date attached. Judging by the timeline and the smaller scale of the movie, we could very well have Joker come out sometime next year.

No official release date has been set for Todd Phillips' Joker origin movie.

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