Todd Phillips' untitledJokercontinued to baffle the everloving heck out of me today, announcing [viaVariety] thatMarc Maronis in talks to join the small-budget DC Comics project. The podcaster and comedian turnedGLOWstar—who would be appearing alongsideRobert De Niro,Zazie Beetz, andJoaquin Phoenixas the Joker himself—will reportedly play a booking agent on a talk show that plays a part in driving the Clown Prince of Crime insane.
I just…I don’t know! I do not know with this film. Maron’s the man, and even thoughGLOWuses his character just a tad too much he still owns almost every scene he’s in. I just feel as if the hype for this movie doesn’t gel with the movie itself, if that makes sense. Every bit of casting news screams “aJokermovie with a crazy cast, this is about to bebonkers"while news about the movie itself paints a picture much more low-key, dark, and introspective, almost amusingly so considering its still the story of a man who gets so mad he decides to commit crime in clown make-up. The logline of Phillips andScott Silver’s script—which has been compared toTaxi DriverandThe King of Comedy—is, “an exploration of a man disregarded by society [that] is not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale.” I think I wrote that same thing freshman year of college when I was still lying about readingInfinite Jestand wearing beanies in the summer.
And, of course, there’s still aJared Leto-starring Joker project in the works to throw everything all to shit, as Jared Leto’s presence so often does. So, a lot to mull over before Phoenix adopts the Man Who Laughs mantle onOctober 4, 2019.
Until then, check out the rest of our coverage of this film including an exclusive interview with Phoenix himself:
