Todd Phillips, the director of Joker, says that he isn’t worried about competing with Marvel and that this was never the film’s goal.
Whatever happens with Joker in terms of box office performance or awards it might receive, one thing is for sure, that the movie is very different from other comic book films being produced.
Being firmly grounded in reality, Todd Phillips’ film is more of a character study in the mold of Tax Driver than anything else. It’s for this reason that the director said during a Venice Film Festival conference (via ComicBook.com) that he isn’t worried about competing with Marvel:
“I don’t know about competition with Marvel and that thing, I’ve never been in the comic book world. When we originally conceived this idea, it was very much about this sort of genre, of taking a different approach with it.”
Phillips said he wanted to do something “completely different from the comic book movies that have come before.”
Regarding how this might impact future comic book movies, he said: “I don’t know what sort of effect it will have with other filmmakers. I think the comic book movies have been doing really well, and they don’t necessarily need a change. We just thought it could be an exciting approach to this genre. I’m not sure what it means for DC, or Marvel, how they’ll change the way they’ll do it.”
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Fortunately, it’s not very long before fans can see the film for themselves, as Joker arrives in cinemas this October.
Joker centres around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone story not seen before on the big screen. The exploration of Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a man disregarded by society, is not only a gritty character study but also a broader cautionary tale.
Joker is set for release on October 4th 2019 and stars Joaquin Phoenix (The Sisters Brothers), Robert De Niro (Goodfellas), Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2), Bill Camp (Red Sparrow), Frances Conroy (American Horror Story), Brett Cullen (Narcos), Glenn Fleshler (Billions), Douglas Hodge (Penny Dreadful), Marc Maron (GLOW), Josh Pais (Motherless Brooklyn), Shea Whigham (Kong: Skull Island), Douglas Hodge (Robin Hood) and Dante Pereira-Olson (You Were Never Really Here).
