News about Scorsese taking on a new project is always exciting. And news about a new comic book/ superhero movie is always exciting too. So what about when you combine the two together?
Well amazingly that seems to be happening. Warner Bros and DC are planning yet another movie based around Batman, this time focusing around the signature villain, The Joker – more specifically, the origin of The Joker.
With Wonder Woman currently being the only really decent film to come from DC since Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy (though not part of their current run of films), DC may be on to another winner managing to grab a huge talent like Scorsese to be on board. Dark and imbued with morally ambiguous characters, DC films seem a perfect fit for a director with a catalogue of films like Scorsese’s. What’s more, this film is being planned to be set in a gritty Gotham City during the 1980s, perhaps intended to be reminiscent of Scorsese’s 1970/1980s films like Raging Bull, Mean Streets and Taxi Driver. It’s well-known how influential directors can be as producers, so let’s hope that Scorsese lends his filmmaking gifts to this project.
Though sadly he’s only producing, not directing. Writing duties are going to both 8 Mile and The Fighter writer Scott Silver and Todd Phillips, the latter who is also helming the director’s chair. Best known for The Hangover films, Phillips has mainly done just comedies so far, his most recent film being comedy crime-drama War Dogs. A film in the DC universe will be quite a departure from what he’s done previously, but with Scorsese guiding his hand, something great could still come from this.
As for who will play the central character of The Joker, that is still currently a mystery for us to speculate on – Jared Leto will not be in it, leaving room for a younger actor to play the character’s origin. The Joker has the potential to be an iconic role for an actor, as we’ve seen with Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger. Jared Leto, on the other hand, has done something different with the character which we saw in Suicide Squad. Not being overly well-received, perhaps they’re creating an opportunity for themselves to do something slightly different, with aspects of Leto’s Joker for us to get used to.
Other than the producer, writers and director and the fact that it’s an origin story, not much is known just yet; it’s all up-in-the-air and unknown, rife with speculation on the internet. But it’s interesting news and could possibly be the start of something wonderful for the DC films.