Meet “Arthur” In The First Official Glimpse At Todd Phillips’ Lead For The Untitled JOKER Film
The last we heard on the upcoming untitled Joker movie from The Hangover director Todd Phillips, Alec Baldwin pretty much came and left from the role of Thomas Wayne, patriarch of the Wayne family whose tragic fallout would birth the rise of the Dark Knight himself, Batman. Granted, this film doesn’t share space with Warner Bros.’ current DCEU timetable, and so therein lies the question of just what will apply with this particular film.
For now, all we really have in its existence is a brief description of the vision at hand for the production’s latest in-studio side venture. Along with a release date slated for October 4, 2019, we also have a first look at actor Joaquin Phoenix (You Were Never Really Here; Her; Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot) via social media captioned “Arthur”, detailing as much that this particular iteration will be the version we see before our iconic antagonist’s transformation into the titular villain that DC fans have all come to know as “The Clown Prince Of Gotham”.
Under the direction of Todd Phillips, the film centers around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone story not seen before on the big screen. Phillips’ exploration of a man disregarded by society is not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale.
Phillips will direct from a screenplay he co-wrote with writer Scott Silver (“The Fighter”). The film will be produced by Emma Tillinger Koskoff and executive produced by Richard Baratta.
Phillips and Scott Silver penned the script with actress Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy and Marc Maron also cast. Per Variety, actor Robert DeNiro is still in talks a role that circumvents that of his 1982 film, The King Of Comedy, installing DeNiro potentially as “Arthur’s” fulcrum into madness.
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