(Inset) Joaquin Phoenix in You Were Never Really Here
Photo Credit: Alison Cohen Rosa/Amazon Studios, DC Comics
The standalone Joker origin movie, starring Joaquin Phoenix, now has a title and a release date: it's simply called 'Joker' and will be out October 4, 2019. Todd Phillips (The Hangover) will direct the film and serve as co-writer alongside Scott Silver (The Fighter).
Warner Bros. describes the film as "a gritty character study but also a broader cautionary tale of a man disregarded by society who becomes the ultimate supervillain". According to The Hollywood Reporter, it'll be in the vein of a crime drama, "darker and more experimental in tone and content".
Joker will begin production later this year with a budget reportedly in the range of $55 million (about Rs. 378 crores), which is a far cry from most superhero movies made today.
It'll have no connection to the existing DC film universe – which includes Wonder Woman and Justice League – and hence will mostly be released under a new DC banner. Jared Leto, who played The Joker in Suicide Squad, will continue in the same role in other DC chapters.
Though Martin Scorsese was said to be attached as producer last year, that doesn't seem to be the case now. Emma Tillinger Koskoff will instead act as producer, with Richard Baratta in the role of executive producer.
Joker's October 2019 release date puts in the same week as Ang Lee's Gemini Man, starring Will Smith and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Amy Adams-starrer The Woman in the Window, and Zombieland 2 with Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, and Emma Stone.
Interestingly, DC now has two comic book movies a month apart, what with Wonder Woman 1984 slated for November 1, 2019.
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