"The Joker" in development with Todd Phillips and Martin Scorsese attached? - Part 1

[The Shape]

And...I'm out.

Spoiler

 

[Greens]

Who is in this cast apart from Alec Baldwin? Who is playing the Joker?

Jack Nicholson

 

[The Shape]

Jack Nicholson

Quit playin' games with my heart.

 

[FunkMiller]

I like that so many people embrace this as a sort of ELSEWORLDS thing, but the minute there's a change to a major character's long running status quo, many of them are apparently running for the hills.

Elseworld stories are absolutely great - provided you already have a successful mainline continuity.

WB do not have this. The mainline continuity is a cluster****.

I friggin’ adore Elseworld stories in the comics... but I don’t want them at the cinema until they get the main continuity movies right.

 

[HBarnill]

...my point being, that we really should be talking about mainline DC movies, instead of these ill advised off shoot movies, designed to help paper over the bulging cracks at the heart of WB’s strategy towards the DC property.

The movie will be another Solo.

Forbes must have searched this site:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottm...-the-same-fate-as-solo-a-star-wars-story/amp/

 

[FTCBIRDMAN]

What kind of confused me is, Phoenix is 44 and if Thomas Wayne is alive in this movie, that implies that Bruce is a child. So when Bruce grows up to become Batman he'll be fighting a 60+ year old Joker?

 

[StarLord]

Jack Nicholson

Jack won't let them use his likeness for CGI, lol.

 

[OutOfBoose]

Forbes must have searched this site:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottm...-the-same-fate-as-solo-a-star-wars-story/amp/

Solo fate? The film will return it's budget with the first photo of Phoenix in the Joker make-up. Regardless of the film's quality.

 

[The Shape]

I friggin’ adore Elseworld stories in the comics... but I don’t want them at the cinema until they get the main continuity movies right.

You should probably stay home for this one, then.

Batman and The Joker have already had multiple successful film and television adaptations spanning decades. The Joker is one of the most iconic and recognizable characters/villains across all media. If you can't get behind or recognize the potential of a bold, alternative "Elseworlds" adaptation of one of the greatest and most prolific villains of all time, a take that will stand on its own and have no bearing on current/future/past DC continuity...I don't really know what to tell you.

 

[The Shape]

What kind of confused me is, Phoenix is 44 and if Thomas Wayne is alive in this movie, that implies that Bruce is a child. So when Bruce grows up to become Batman he'll be fighting a 60+ year old Joker?

None of this matters, and that is the beauty of it.

 

[The Joker]

The whole thing's just lazy. Wayne as a Trump caricature and then getting Baldwin for that role...

Agreed. That’s like casting Reese Witherspoon as Norma Desmond*.

*for those who don’t know, that’s a Sunset Blvd reference. It’s one of the best films ever.

If they're doing that to Thomas Wayne, imagine what kind of characterization this "Joker" will have.

WTF?! They're basing THOMAS WAYNE on Donald Trump?


If that's true... f*** this movie. I mean, if you thought Jonathan "Let 'em die, kid" Kent was bad, wait 'til ya get a load of Thomas "I moved on her like a b****" Wayne.

But.....but its an elseworld's story so it can be as stupid as it likes and that's "ok".

We obviously know very little at this stage, but this sounds like it's either destined to be amazing or outright terrible, no in between.

Yeah, but the little we do know isn't exactly instilling with confidence. The cast line up doesn't do anything to ease it. DC movies, good and bad, have always been able to pull in great actors.

 

[FTCBIRDMAN]

None of this matters, and that is the beauty of it.

The beauty of what? The Joker is a Batman character. I'm supposed to believe that at 65 years old he will be the Dark Knights arch nemesis? The whole idea of this sounds iffy to me. I like Phoenix. He's a fantastic actor and I'm certain he will do well in the part, but I don't want to see a film that's completely disconnected from where the character comes from. They want to take it out of the Batman universe? Then why include Thomas Wayne? It almost seems as if The Joker is going to be the protagonist and Wayne will be the antagonist. The Joker is a psychopath. I really hope that's not the route they are going with this

 

[Greens]

I friggin’ adore Elseworld stories in the comics... but I don’t want them at the cinema until they get the main continuity movies right.

Why not? I couldn't care less what continuity something belongs to as long as it's good.

 

[Travesty]

The beauty of what? The Joker is a Batman character. I'm supposed to believe that at 65 years old he will be the Dark Knights arch nemesis?

It's an Elseworld, so Batman may not even exist in this world, at all. You can literally do anything you want in Elseworlds.

 

[The Shape]

It almost seems as if The Joker is going to be the protagonist and Wayne will be the antagonist. The Joker is a psychopath. I really hope that's not the route they are going with this

If the film is a character study about a man whose twisted life leads him to become "The Joker", and if the film is told from his point of view...doesn't that make sense?

A principal character can be the protagonist of a story and still not be a "good guy" or "hero". Think Goodfellas or The Godfather.

 

[FTCBIRDMAN]

It's an Elseworld, so Batman may not even exist in this world, at all. You can literally do anything you want in Elseworlds.

Then why even bother including Thomas Wayne? If you can anything you want, create a character. Don't take a know character and take a big dump on him and say "it's elseworld so we can do it." Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should

 

[Black Narcissus]

I'm going to try the notion of wait and see. I'm hoping it's good with this cast.

 

[Travesty]

Then why even bother including Thomas Wayne? If you can anything you want, create a character. Don't take a know character and take a big dump on him and say "it's elseworld so we can do it." Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should

But that's literally the entire point of Elseworlds: to do things you shouldn't. It's to diverge from the normal standards of characters and canon. It's an open sandbox with no rules applied.

 

[FTCBIRDMAN]

If the film is a character study about a man whose twisted life leads him to become "The Joker", and if the film is told from his point of view...doesn't that make sense?

A principal character can be the protagonist of a story and still not be a "good guy" or "hero". Think Goodfellas or The Godfather.

I certainly wouldn't mind seeing a film that studies what events lead the Joker to ultimately become the crazed murderous psychopath we all know, but I do not want them to change the character. The Joker is not a hero. He isn't a character we should be rooting for. He kills people for fun. Is the movie going to explore his origins and then end when he finally goes white face? I just don't like the idea of a Joker movie that has nothing to do with Batman and yet included Thomas Wayne just for the hell of it. Maybe I'm wrong as we are still very early in the process and I'm certainly willing to change my mind if I hear this GS that intrigue me later on. As of right now though, I'm concerned. Just my two cents

 

[StarLord]

Watch Joker be T-Wayne's errand boy.

 

[Boom]

Elseworld stories are absolutely great - provided you already have a successful mainline continuity.

That's not a quantifiable requirement.

I'm sorry, but I don't subscribe to this notion that a studio has to do this in order to do that. If the filmmakers have a story here that they think is worth telling, then I'd rather they have the cojones to go through with it instead of back-stoving a potentially good movie just because they haven't gotten their **** together yet with the main tentpoles. This is just basic storytelling. You have a hot idea with filmmakers who believe in it, and you roll the dice.

Could the movie be terrible? Quite easily. But the current state of DC's main cinematic properties should have absolutely no bearing here. If they think Elseworlds stories are an avenue for success, go for it.

 

[Guts]

What kind of confused me is, Phoenix is 44 and if Thomas Wayne is alive in this movie, that implies that Bruce is a child. So when Bruce grows up to become Batman he'll be fighting a 60+ year old Joker?

How should that matter when it's just going to be a one off movie with no sequel?

 

[FTCBIRDMAN]

But that's literally the entire point of Elseworlds: to do things you shouldn't. It's to diverge from the normal standards of characters and canon. It's an open sandbox with no rules applied.

That's all fine and dandy but doing a complete 180 on classic characters that I love is not something that interests me. I'm not saying anyone else's opinion is wrong, I'm simply expressing my own. If those kinds of stories are your cup of tea, hey I hope you have a blast with it. But to me personally, I'll probably pass on it unless I see some things that really grab me and make me want to watch it

 

[Guts]

The beauty of what? The Joker is a Batman character. I'm supposed to believe that at 65 years old he will be the Dark Knights arch nemesis? The whole idea of this sounds iffy to me. I like Phoenix. He's a fantastic actor and I'm certain he will do well in the part, but I don't want to see a film that's completely disconnected from where the character comes from. They want to take it out of the Batman universe? Then why include Thomas Wayne? It almost seems as if The Joker is going to be the protagonist and Wayne will be the antagonist. The Joker is a psychopath. I really hope that's not the route they are going with this

You can have a story with a villain as the protagonist. Sweeney Todd is an example of that. The main character in Sweeney Todd is a barber that kills people and then those bodies get ground up and used to make savory pies that are sold in the bakeshop below his establishment. The main character in that is obviously not a hero but he's still a protagonist.

 

[Flint Marko]

Yeah, but the little we do know isn't exactly instilling with confidence. The cast line up doesn't do anything to ease it. DC movies, good and bad, have always been able to pull in great actors.

Juaquin isn't just any other great actor, though. From all accounts he's a bit picker than the rest and his involvement is enough to keep me interested. On top of that we've got Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin, and Marc Maron as well, the latter of whom has praised the script. And on top of that it's ostensibly a smaller movie so WB isn't going to get their sticky little paws all over it in the editing room.

That said: I get why this would be more enticing if the mainline DC films were worth anything. I don't "need" a Joker movie and I personally wish they'd fast track a Superman solo and the Matt Reeves Batman movie so we'd have an intact trinity we could see every few years. We don't, and that really sucks, but in the mean time this sounds interesting. I'm on board.