Joker, the Todd Phillips-directed film that will see actor Joaquin Phoenix exploring the origins of the iconic Batman villain has gotten a spot on Warner Brothers release schedule. According to breaking reports, the film will bow in theaters October 4, 2019.
After being in development for some time at the studio, it was finally given a greenlight last week.
Warners describes the movie as an “exploration of a man disregarded by society [that] is not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale.” Phillips co-wrote the screenplay with Scott Silver.
The fall of 2019 is starting to shape up to be a busy one in terms of high-profile titles. Joker will be opening up the same weekend as Paramount’s thriller Gemini Man starring Clive Owen, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Will Smith and Fox’s “This doesn’t at all sound like Hitchcock’s Rear Window” The Woman in the Window with Amy Adams. The following week Disney will be bringing out Jungle Cruise, starring Dwayne Johnson, while Warner Brothers will have the drama The Goldfinch with Nicole Kidman and Finn Wolfhard. Additionally, Warners will have another superhero film out just four weeks after Joker’s debut when the highly anticipated Wonder Woman 2 hits screens.
Interestingly, although the Wonder Woman sequel opens four weeks later, that film has already wrapped production and is heading into a long period of post-production to its visual effects heavy nature. Joker, on the other hand, won’t get in front of cameras until later this year. That, and it’s much more modest $55 million budget, speaks to the films smaller ambitions in terms of spectacle. Hopefully, Phillips can create as interesting a character as the studio synopsis above suggests the film will be. Although, with the Joker’s origin so closely tied to his archnemesis Batman, it could be a tough job for the film to separate them from each other and still have a satisfactory story to tell. We will see.
