Usually superheroes end up being the winners, but in 2019, a villain is set to come out on top. Joaquin Phoenix's Joker looks like it could be the film of the year by a long stretch if early reviews are anything to go by. The Walk The Line star is set to play Batman's arch nemesis in a previously unexplored origin story.
Phoenix has big shoes to fill, no pun intended, as Heath Ledger's impersonation of the character is legendary. It looks like he's managed to do it.
Thankfully, we'll be able to find out for ourselves very soon as Joker is set to be released on October 4 later this year in both the UK and America. Make sure you book your tickets early. It's not something that you're going to want to miss out on.
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The hype for the new film was already unreal, but it's been ramped up even higher after it received a whopping eight-minute-long standing ovation after it was premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday, according to Variety.
A five-star review in Empire said the origin-story was 'bold, devastating and utterly beautiful'.
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Adding: "Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix have not just reimagined one of the most iconic villains in cinema history but reimagined the comic book movie itself."
Director and writer Todd Phillips told the audience: "Why can't you do a genre comic-book film like that? We thought this could be an exciting approach to this genre. I'm not sure what it means for DC or Marvel...
"It was a hard movie for us to get made, to convince DC and the studio at first, but we thought we would keep pushing because we thought it would be special."
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Phillips said Pheonix's commitment to the role saw him lose a whopping 52 pounds (23.5kg).
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Phillips said: "We wanted to look at everything through as real and authentic a lens as possible.
"I don't believe that in the real world if you fell into a vat of acid you would turn white and have a smile and your hair would be green.
"So you start backwards-engineering these things and it becomes really interesting. 'How about if he's a clown at one of these places where you rent out entertainment?'.
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"It was one of the most fun scripts to write because you were only breaking rules."
While Phoenix admitted that he didn't still fully understand the complicated character he played, saying: "There are certain areas of the character that frankly still aren't clear to me, and I'm fine with that.
"There's something enjoyable about not having to answer a lot of those questions. It requires a certain amount of participation from the audience that feels different."
Who's in the cast of the new Joker movie?
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Aside from Phoenix, the cast for the movie includes:
- Robert De Niro as Murray Franklin
- Marc Maron as Ted Marco
- Zazie Beetz as Sophie Dumond
- Shea Whigham as Detective Burke
- Frances Conroy as Penny Fleck
- Brian Tyree Henry as Arkham State Hospital Clerk
- Brett Cullen as Thomas Wayne
- Douglas Hodge as Alfred Pennyworth
- Glenn Fleshler as Randall
- Bill Camp as Detective Garrity
- Josh Pais as Hoyt Vaughn
Joker hits cinemas on 4 October.
Featured Image Credit: Warner BrosTopics: Robert De Niro, TV and Film, Joaquin Phoenix, Celebrity, Joker, UK Entertainment, The Joker
