Forget everything you know from decades of Batman comics, because Todd Phillips' upcoming JOKER starring Joaquin Phoenix will be throwing it all out the window. In the latest issue of Empire Magazine, which hits newsstands on July 11th, Phillips revealed that the upcoming film will be unique in that they didn't pull anything from the comic-books.
We didn’t follow anything from the comic-books, which people are gonna be mad about. We just wrote our own version of where a guy like Joker might come from. That’s what was interesting to me. We’re not even doing Joker, but the story of becoming Joker. It’s about this man.
I'd imagine that Todd Phillips is right, some people will likely be pissed with JOKER's take on the Clown Prince of Crime, but I'm quite excited to see something completely new, particularly with Joaquin Phoenix giving us what looks to be a unique and disturbing performance. As far as Phillips is concerned, Phoenix was the only man for the job. "I think he’s the greatest actor," said Phillips. "We had a photo of him above our computer while we were writing. We constantly thought, 'God, imagine if Joaquin actually does this.'" Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck in the film, a failed stand-up comedian who is driven insane and becomes the psychopathic criminal mastermind known as the Joker.
Brian Tyree Henry (CHILD'S PLAY), who is seen in the above trailer, has previously given his two-cents on just what separates this new Joker story from its predecessors.
I think it’s going to be very different because it really goes into just the origin story. Villains are never born that way, they’re made. There’s something that happens in their lives that they give up their faith in humanity; they see the flaws of humanity and mankind and feel like they must correct it. And what happens with Joker is you start to see how he really was a happy person. He really was trying to find this…hope in humanity until it broke him down and he just had to give up and reshape it.
"Also, there’s going to be a connection [made] about a boy and his mother," Henry continued. "That is another thing that you’re going to see—that he was capable of love at some point. But, at the end of the day, I think it’s all about how he was made that way, how he didn’t start being that kind of person." JOKER will hit theaters on October 4, 2019.