She would play “a single mother who catches the interest of the man who will become the ‘clown prince of crime.’”
“Joker” has been compared to a dark crime thriller, described as an “exploration of a man disregarded by society that is not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale.”
It’s meant to have a lower budget than the DC Extended Universe movies, since it’s not part of that world. (Jared Leto is still the current Joker in the DCEU, and he may still get his own movie.)
“Joker” — the official title — is scheduled to start filming in New York in September.
Meanwhile, Beetz’s career is still flying high. She’s an Emmy nominee for her role as Van in “Atlanta,” and she has several films coming up beyond “Joker” — including “Finding Her,” “Slice,” “High Flying Bird,” “The Undiscovered Country,” “Against All Enemies,” and “Pale Blue Dot.” She’ll also be back for more fun with Ryan Reynolds in the eventual “X-Force” movie.
“Joker” was just given a release date of Oct. 4, 2019.
The studio has officially marked Oct. 4, 2019 as the dark film’s release date, Variety reports. The announcement came Wednesday ahead of San Diego Comic-Con. It follows THR‘s report last week that the film will start shooting in September.
Phoenix has made it clear that he’s passionate about the project. He recently told Moviefone that “the one thing that only consistently motivates [his choice of films to star in] is the character and the filmmaker,” which were two great reasons to sign on for “Joker.” He’ll be playing one of DC Comics’ most iconic antiheroes in what is described as an “exploration of a man disregarded by society that is not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale.”
In addition to boasting a fascinating protagonist, the film has Todd Phillips directing. He co-wrote the script with Scott Silver. Emma Tillinger Kosoff is producing, while Richard Baratta serves as executive producer.
“Joker” is set to kick off filming in New York this September, and then it won’t be all that long before we can see the Clown Prince of Crime in theaters the following October.
What the Joker said to Batman in regards to the vigilante normalizing “pancaking cars” on the nightly news for Gotham City also applies to the movie he said it in. “The Dark Knight” is one of two big culprits from 2008 that we can blame for our current multiplex landscape being flooded with one comic book movie after another.
For the last decade, superhero films have become big business, turning the dreams of Comic-Con Hall H attendees into cash-minting realities. Some blockbusters have been must-see (2012’s “The Avengers“), some have been wish-we-never-saw (2017’s “Justice League.”) All, however, point to Hollywood’s decade-old feeding frenzy on any IP that can chase “The Dark Knight’s” tail and, hopefully, recreate its critical and box office (mostly box office) success. But Christopher Nolan‘s seminal film wasn’t alone in lighting the fuse on this explosion of bringing comics to the big screen. The other culprit we mentioned? Marvel’s “Iron Man.”
Marvel
Opening May 2008 — two months before “TDK” — “Iron Man” turned a B-lister on Marvel’s hero roster into, well, IRON MAN. You can’t think of the Avenger without also thinking of the actor who played him, Robert Downey, Jr. And you’d be hard-pressed to find a character and performance that fully formed so early on, right out of the gate.
“Iron Man” was a hit that paved the way for the great experiment that was/is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The MCU is a household name — many of its films are staring at me from my DVD shelf as I write this on my couch. The adventures of Captain America, Thor, a sentient tree with a limited vocabulary, and, yes, even a gun-toting, talking space raccoon have further evolved the landscape, forcing Hollywood to bend to both its will and ways of franchising by way of shared universe.
“The Dark Knight,” on its tenth anniversary, stands out in sharp contrast to Marvel’s way of doing things. It is, by design, a standalone entry that functions within a larger tapestry beholden to the whims of one man: Nolan.
As much as Warner Bros. tried to steer their slate of DC films toward a more Marvel-way of doing things in the early days — starting with a Wayne Enterprises logo appearing on a satellite in “Man of Steel” — they had to first contend with Nolan wrapping up his Batman arc the way he intended. That meant that the more fantastical DC heroes like Superman and Aquaman — heroes DC and WB have been trying to make happen with varying degrees of success — had no place in Nolan’s gritty and grounded take on the DCU. Nolan’s vision for DC’s most popular hero was impenetrable; a luxury the filmmaker could afford in a pre-“Avengers” world. (And one he would now, at the very least, receive some push back on.)
WB
Efforts to bring Nolan on to help “godfather” the next chapter of DC’s movie efforts — the DC Extended Universe (yawn) — resulted in some behind-the-scenes oversight in the making of 2013’s “Man of Steel.” Outside bringing in his brother, “Dark Knight” cowriter and “Westworld” co-creator Jonathan Nolan, Christopher basically served as an “in-name only” executive producer. (Much to the chagrin of DC fans.)
The type of success (or lack thereof) that experiment yielded was a very public and pricey “cutting off their nose to spite their face” mess for both DC and Warner Bros. It’s horse-before-the-cart blockbuster filmmaking; WB announced a slate of several films between 2013 and 2020 that, now, are huge maybes or afterthoughts at best. They wanted Marvel’s success, but were unable or unwilling to follow the steps to get there — or risk being accused of copying if they did.
As a result, Marvel’s continued success sent WB shareholders into a tizzy, resulting in too many executives helicopter mom-ing over “BvS,” which lead to the movie being the misfire that it became. (But at least we got a “Wonder Woman” out of it.) Fans have suffered through Warner and DC’s very public attempts to get their sh** together and their house in order — which, so far, seems to have resulted in less streamlining, more mess: How many Joker movies are in development? Is Ben Affleck out as Batman? Does anyone care about any DC movie other than “Wonder Woman 1984?”
In the ten years since “TDK” changed how movies are made, it’s held up pretty well in the face of Marvel’s takeover of the genre. If anything, the MCU has impacted post-“Dark Knight” and “Dark Knight Rises” plans heavily, especially without a filmmaker powerhouse like Chris Nolan to provide the stories under scrutiny the air cover only an 800 lb. gorilla like that can.
As a movie, as a pure cinematic experience, “The Dark Knight” is second-to-none compared to Marvel’s run of films. It has what even Marvel’s best movies seem to lack or not really care to have — weighty, thematic storylines to thread around and through all the action-y tentpoles and set pieces. And that’s more than okay, Marvel! You do you.
What “Dark Knight” did is prove to Hollywood what most of us already took to be self-evident: comic book movies can be about something. “Dark Knight” is a crime drama about heroes and villains and the increasingly blurred lines separating the two — and the cost of being the person who takes it upon himself to sort all that out. It just happens to star Batman and the Joker.
WB
Equal parts Michael Mann’s “Heat” and borderline Greek tragedy, “Dark Knight” feels relatively small-scale in terms of trailer-moment-friendly action scenes. The film’s biggest action-y set piece, outside of Bat-pod vs. semi truck, comes in the overlong third act, where Batman dangles some of GCPD’s finest — and Joker — from an under-construction building while using the bat sonar from “Batman Forever.” That’s all intercut in part with the ferry sequence, where one boat literally holds the fate of the other in the palm of their hand via bomb detonator. And that all leads to the mostly-verbal showdown between Batman, Two-Face, and Jim Gordon, which results in one of the most satisfying, fist-pumping, “eff yeah!” movie endings/last shots in the history of filmmaking.
So no sky portals spewing alien armies. No Infinity Stones. Just two or three people in a room, talking.
In Nolan’s movie, ideas are weapons. Words artillery. And the ensuing thematic barrage results in emotional tragedy that forever resonates for the human beings wearing capes or hiding behind war paint and scars. No Marvel movie, not even the ambitious and, from an early-MCU-days storytelling perspective, very evolved “Infinity War” has come halfway close to pulling off the complex and thematically-charged storytelling we witnessed here for the first time ten years ago.
In a pop-culture where Marvel’s movie Phases and shared universes are king, “The Dark Knight” is an anomaly. A rebel. It is, to paraphrase Joker, “the immovable object” standing against “the unstoppable force.” Ironically, this movie now arguably represents the very chaos its titular character combats.
“TDK’s” plot has some loose threads one may not want to pull on (Joker spent how many months setting up citywide “Saw”-like traps and ALL of them went according to plan? A plan made by an “agent of chaos” who rallies against having one? ). Despite logic issues like that, the movie still works. It’s a scary-good delivery system for serious-minded escapist fare.
Marvel movies are a lot of fun, and can get you right in the feels (RIP, Phil Coulson, Loki, and Peggy). “The Dark Knight, ” though, it sticks with you. It changes you. Forever.
In honor of Christopher Nolan‘s groundbreaking comic book movie celebrating its 10th anniversary on July 18, Warner Bros. announced that the blockbuster film will have a limited one-week engagement in select 70mm IMAX theaters starting Aug. 24.
Tickets go on sale Friday, July 20 and fans can see the iconic movie at the following locations: AMC Universal Citywalk IMAX, Universal City, AMC Lincoln Square IMAX, New York City, AMC Metreon IMAX, San Francisco, and Ontario Place Cinesphere IMAX, Toronto.
“The Dark Knight” hit theaters ten years ago today, with a then-record opening weekend of $158.4 million. It would go on to earn $1 billion at the worldwide box office.
Heath Ledger‘s iconic performance as the Joker earned Oscar-buzz early on, leading to a posthumous Best Supporting Actor win. The film took home two Oscars, the other was for Best Sound Mixing, while scoring eight nominations in total. The face-palm that was “Dark Knight” failing to score a must-deserved Best Picture nomination lead to the Academy broadening the number of films that could be nominated in that category.
Nolan shot select scenes in the IMAX format, pioneering the trend for other Hollywood blockbusters to follow. (Most recently, “Avengers: Infinity War” — and its sequel — were shot entirely with IMAX cameras.)
Earlier today we spoke with the absolutely lovely Joaquin Phoenix about his brilliant new film “Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot.” That film, which reunites him with his “To Die For” director Gus Van Sant, is a postcard-sized character study of American cartoonist John Callahan. Just yesterday it was announced that he’d officially signed on to something much, much bigger: Warner Bros’ standalone ‘Joker’ film, to be directed by Todd Phillips and executive produced by Martin Scorsese.
We couldn’t help but ask the actor why, when he’d been very publicly courted for lead role in Marvel Studios’ “Doctor Strange,” he would sign on to do this comic book adaptation instead.
“Well, the one thing that only consistently motivates me is the character and the filmmaker. And so it just has happened that those things have never come together for a bigger movie but I’m not opposed to any genre or any size of film,” Phoenix explained. “I typically make films that are maybe more independent, that’s where I’ve found the most interesting characters and the things I want to pursue, but I’m not opposed to any film. But I will say that I don’t think you can equate this movie with some of those other movies that you’ve talked about.”
When we asked if this would be something completely different, Phoenix wryly shot back, “I don’t know what it’s going to be. So I’ll just leave it at that.”
“Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot” opens in select theaters this week (it’s really, really great).
Can you believe it’s been a decade since “The Dark Knight” hit theaters?
Even ten years and a reboot or two later, this game-changing blockbuster is still widely regarded as the best Batman movie ever made. So let’s celebrate the film’s 10th anniversary by exploring some fun trivia about Christopher Nolan‘s Batman opus. 1. “The Dark Knight” became the first superhero movie to reach the billion dollar mark at the box office (though certainly not the last). It made more money in its first week of release than “Batman Begins” did in its entire theatrical run.
4. An earlier draft of the script featured a reference to the fact that Rachel is related to Dick Grayson, the original Robin in the Batman comics. Nolan opted to cut that moment, not wanting to give fans the impression that Robin would appear in the next sequel. 5. The shot of Batman standing precariously atop Chicago’s Sears Tower is real. Not only that, Christian Bale insisted that he be the one to appear in the shot, not a stunt double.
6. Other actors considered for the part of Harvey Dent included Matt Damon, Hugh Jackman, and Mark Ruffalo.7. Cillian Murphy became the first actor to reprise the role of a Batman villain in a live-action film thanks to his cameo as Scarecrow. 8. The iconic Batpod motorcycle proved extremely difficult to drive. It weighed around 600 pounds and only one stuntman managed to drive it properly during filming.
9. “The Dark Knight” is thus far the only Batman movie where Batman doesn’t use a Batarang at all.10. Ledger’s distinctive face-licking tic came about for practical reasons. Ledger found that his silicone facial prosthetics came loose when he talked, and the licking helped keep them in place.
11. Christopher Nolan rarely has deleted scenes available for his movies. This speaks to his efficiency in how tight he shapes his scripts and their final product. But there is a “TDK” deleted scene out there: After The Joker crashes Bruce’s fundraising shindig for Harvey Dent — and after Batman swan dives out the window to save Rachel from pancking onto a car — the villain gets into a getaway car, which can be seen in the below still. 12. While Bale’s raspy Batman voice is often lampooned in pop culture, Bale didn’t actually alter his vocal approach compared to “Batman Begins.” Nolan made the decision to digitally alter Bale’s voice in post-production.
13. The Italian dub of 1989’s “Batman” features Giancarlo Giannini as the voice of Joker. As a tribute to that film, his son Adriano was cast as the voice of Joker in “The Dark Knight’s” Italian dub.
14. Ledger posthumously won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, the first time a comic book movie won an acting Oscar. The nomination was actually announced on the one-year anniversary of Ledger’s death.
15. Director Sam Mendes admits that his first James Bond movie, “Skyfall,” was inspired by “The Dark Knight” and its tone. “It felt like a movie that was about our world post-9/11, and played on our fears, and discussed our fears and why they existed and I thought that was incredibly brave and interesting,” he said in an interview.
Bottom line, a decade later, this is still the movie we need and deserve right now.
On the Superhero News Show, co-host Mark Hughes (who also writes about superhero movies for Forbes) said he thinks that the Leto solo Joker film is “not likely” because “we can’t use preexisting Jokers.” (Sorry, sir. You’re a preexisting Joker. You’re not covered under the current terms of the DCEU.”)
Also, Martin Scorsese‘s Joker movie might precede a new Batman film. Which would then make Phoenix, you guessed it, a “preexisting Joker” if he appears in any other DCEU movie.
Here’s Hughes’s far-from-firm take:
“I think Joaquin Phoenix is playing the Joker in a standalone film, that will possibly wind up not being standalone, as the situation evolved with the solo Batman movies and the future of the DCEU shapes up. I haven’t heard anything firm, but I’ve heard certainly whispers from several people that I’ve talked to about that project… so now it looks like there’s going to be that project and I have heard from a few people that there is talk of if [the Joker] movie is really going to go forward and if it’s really that good, if we’re rebooting Batman anyway, he’s going to need a Joker. We can’t use preexisting Jokers. So, we either have Jared Leto showing up as the Joker in some sort of sequel movie, and a Joaquin Phoenix solo Joker movie, and then we have to have another Joker. Wouldn’t it make more sense to take a Martin Scorsese-produced Joker with Joaquin Phoenix and wait and see if it works out, then just cross that and have that be the Joker for the new Batman?”
With the news that Martin Scorsese is producing the upcoming Joker movie comes speculation that Warner Bros wants to bring in his favorite leading man, Leonardo DiCaprio.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, sources say Warners want Leo to up the spinoff’s prestige factor. (But if they want a prestige film, why hire “The Hangover’”s Todd Phillips to direct?)
Need we point out: This is supposed to be an origin story and DiCaprio turns 43 this year. Heath Ledger, who posthumously won an Oscar for his career-defining portrayal of the villain in “The Dark Knight,” was only 28.
DiCaprio’s closer in age to the last guy who played the Joker, 45-year-old Jared Leto. Leto, by the way, is said to be very unhappy about the standalone Joker film, even though he’s getting his own movie with Harley Quinn.
The plan to hire Leo could work if, according to “sources,” he’d be playing a Scorsese-esque crime boss more like Jack Nicholson in “The Departed,” which would be an interesting handing-off-of-the-torch from one Joker to another.
That would presumably still leave room for a younger actor to play the Joker in flashbacks.
Reps for Warner Bros, DiCaprio, Leto and Scorsese declined to comment on THR’s story.
If we never get a DiCaprio Joker (at this point, we’re not holding our breath), we’ll always have his deliciously over-the-top turn as villain Calvin Candie in “Django Unchained.”
The Marvel and DC fandoms may be sworn enemies, but that doesn’t mean that an MCU star can’t have some fun dreamcasting herself as an iconic DC villain.
“Guardians of the Galaxy” star Karen Gillan found herself in just such a position earlier this month during an appearance at Florida SuperCon, where she was asked to dish about her roles in projects ranging from beloved cult sci-fi series “Doctor Who,” to her upcoming turn in “Jumanji,” to her current gig as part of Marvel’s “Guardians” crew. But when asked about who she’d want to play if she could join “another fandom,” Gillan had a surprising — and pretty awesome — answer.
“Oh, can I say something DC?” Gillan responded. “Okay, I’m going to say something DC, and I’m going to play the Joker. Maybe a female Joker.”
When told that there is, in fact, “an alternate reality” in the DC comics where such a scenario exists (check out ComicBook.com’s explainer on the subject here for more info), the actress was pretty excited.
“This is my calling!” a visibly excited Gillan told the crowd. “Somebody make a call for me and let them know I’m available.”
While we doubt Gillan will actually be trading in her Marvel credentials for a role in the DCEU, we can’t help but think the actress would be perfect for the part. Maybe once Jared Leto is done with the character, Gillan can take a crack?
Can you believe it’s been a decade since “
1. “The Dark Knight” became the first superhero movie to reach the billion dollar mark at the box office (though certainly not the last). It made more money in its first week of release than “
5. The shot of Batman standing precariously atop Chicago’s Sears Tower is real. Not only that, 
7. 
8. The iconic Batpod motorcycle proved extremely difficult to drive. It weighed around 600 pounds and only one stuntman managed to drive it properly during filming.
10. Ledger’s distinctive face-licking tic came about for practical reasons. Ledger found that his silicone facial prosthetics came loose when he talked, and the licking helped keep them in place.
12. While Bale’s raspy Batman voice is often lampooned in pop culture, Bale didn’t actually alter his vocal approach compared to “Batman Begins.” Nolan made the decision to digitally alter Bale’s voice in post-production.
Are we going to get a 
With the news that 
The Marvel and DC fandoms may be sworn enemies, but that doesn’t mean that an MCU star can’t have some fun dreamcasting herself as an iconic DC villain.
