I may have very little interest in the idea of a standlone JOKER origin movie, but I have to admit that director Todd Phillips is putting together an impressive cast for the standalone JOKER origin movie he's making. It started with the fascinating casting of Joaquin Phoenix as the title character, the "clown prince of crime" and Batman's greatest adversary. Then DEADPOOL 2's Zazie Beetz was chosen to play a single mother who catches his attention, and Robert De Niro entered negotiations to play a talk show host who is somehow instrumental in the origin story.
Given that JOKER has been described as being a dark character study in the vein of TAXI DRIVER and THE KING OF COMEDY, it's very fitting that Phillips would give a role to De Niro, the star of TAXI DRIVER and THE KING OF COMEDY. When this project was first announced it was said that the director of those films, Martin Scorsese, would be producing JOKER, but he doesn't appear to be attached to it anymore.
The latest news is that Frances Conroy, an actress best known for her roles on the TV shows Six Feet Under, American Horror Story, and The Mist (pictured above), is in talks to play a character named Penny. The Joker's mother.
Phillips wrote the screenplay for JOKER with Scott Silver, drawing at least some inspiration from the Alan Moore comic book The Killing Joke.
In Alan Moore’s version of the Joker’s origins, the villain was an unnamed failed comedian who struggles to make ends meet for his pregnant wife. When his wife is killed in a freak accident and a robbery he is forced to take part in disfigures his face, the comedian snaps, becoming the infamous Joker.
JOKER will begin filming this September in New York, heading toward an October 4, 2019 release date.
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