Joker origin movie in the works from The Hangover director
Reports say that Martin Scorsese is on board to produce
The origin story of the classic Batman villain, The Joker, is to be told in a new movie. Written by The Hangover director Todd Philips and Scott Silver, who penned the 2002 Eminem movie 8 Mile, it will apparently take its inspiration from Martin Scorsese movies like Taxi Driver with a hard boiled story and setting. According to Deadline, Scorsese is signed on to produce.
The Joker himself is yet to be cast, and while Jared Leto is currently playing the character in the DC expanded universe – including the Suicide Squad sequel and Gotham City Sirens – the new film “will launch the character with a different actor, possibly younger” in a “gritty and grounded” crime film set in early-‘80s Gotham City. There is no word on when the film might be released.
Jack Nicholson brought The Joker to life in 1989’s Batman, which featured the villain's first on-screen origin story – a gangster named 'Jack Napier' falls in a vat of acid, if you haven't seen it in a while.
Yet despite first appearing back in 1940, the Joker in the comics has never had a definitive creation story – leaving plenty of room for interpretation. As the Clown Prince of Crime says in The Killing Joke, one of his most famous stories: "If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!"
