Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker Movie Is A Go?

By Reggie's Take on July 11, 2018

According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, Joaquin Phoenix has finalized his deal with Warner Brothers to play The Joker in a standalone movie.

For a while now Warner Brothers has been developing a Joker origin movie that would not be part of the established DC Extended Universe. The one-off standalone movie from director/co-writer Todd Phillips will offer a unique spin on the famous Batman villain.

This Joker movie has been described as “an exploration of a man disregarded by society that is not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale.” Not being connected to Warner Brothers DCEU will allow this Joker movie to be more of a crime drama, darker and more experimental in tone and content.

The budget will supposedly fall around $55 million, which is notably smaller than most of your comic book movies. Warner Brothers has yet to set a release date for the one-off Joker movie, but could be ready for theaters by late 2019.

If Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker doesn’t excite you don’t forget that Warner Brothers is separately developing a standalone Joker film with Jared Leto. Having played the Joker in Suicide Squad, Leto recently signed on to Sony’s Spider-Man spin-off Morbius.

Reggie’s Take:
Given a choice between seeing Joaquin Phoenix or Jared Leto playing the Joker I have to go with Joaquin Phoenix.

I’ve seen Suicide Squad and even though the movie is watch able I’m of the opinion the movie didn’t take advantage of Jared Leto as the Joker. If Warner Brothers had used the Joker as the villain for Suicide Squad I might have a better opinion on Leto in the role.

As exciting as it is to hear that Joaquin Phoenix finalized his deal to play the crown prince of crime I still have concerns if this movie will actually happen. The report by the Hollywood Reporter did say that Warner Brothers hasn’t set a release date and were all to familiar with Warner Brothers announcing movies and then nothing ever comes of it.

Don’t get me wrong, I want to see this movie happen, but I would feel better if a release date was in place. As curious as I am to see Joaquin Phoenix play the Joker I’m still wondering if Warner Brothers actually knows what it’s doing when it comes to their DC properties.