The official Twitter account for director Todd Phillips' JOKER has some news that's bound to put a smile on your face. It would appear that a new trailer for the highly-anticipated feature starring Joaquin Phoenix is set to take the stage tomorrow, which will hopefully give us more insight into the villain-centric standalone experience.
In the upcoming film, Joaquin Phoenix stars as Arthur Fleck, a failed stand-up comedian who is driven insane and becomes the psychopathic criminal mastermind known as the Joker. Joining Phoenix for the criminal-led cautionary tale are Robert De Niro, Marc Maron, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brian Tyree Henry, Brett Cullen, Bill Camp, and Josh Pals, among others.
Back in April, Phillips took his JOKER film to the CinemaCon stage, where he talked briefly about people's misconceptions of the project, and set the record straight as to what fans of the character can expect from the movie. "I don't have a lot to say about the film, as it's still taking shape, but also because I want it to be a surprise. That said, there's been a lot of chatter about what this film is and what it isn't and most of it hasn't been accurate," Phillips told the CinemaCon audience. "When the marketing department at Warners asked me the other day to describe the movie, I said 'I can't.' They said at least tell me the genre and I thought about it for a minute and said 'it's a tragedy.'"
Hopefully tomorrow's trailer will paint a better picture of what we can expect from Phillips' Scorsese-adjacent feature. My suspicion is that JOKER will serve as a deep-dive into one of fiction's greatest villains, complete with twists, turns, and an open window into the character's insanity. I want more than just back alley brawls and absentee parents. I want visceral pain. I want to see the cracks beginning to form. I want to see Arthur's sanity oozing out of the spidering splits. I want something outside the norm. Superheroes are great, but it's time to shake things up, don't you think? Here's hoping that JOKER delivers on all fronts and paves the way for more experiments within the genre.
JOKER will open in theaters on October 4.