Todd Phillips, the director of Joker, says the film isn’t trying to glorify violence.
In the build-up to its much-anticipated release, there has been a fair bit of talk online about Joker and the way it depicts violence. Some have criticised the film, saying that it even glorifies the act.
Todd Phillips is having none of this. Speaking to The Wrap, the director dismissed the claims and even revealed the real reason he and Joaquin Phoenix decided to make the movie:
“I literally described to Joaquin at one point in those three months as like, ‘Look at this as a way to sneak a real movie in the studio system under the guise of a comic book film’. It wasn’t, ‘We want to glorify this behavior.’ It was literally like ‘Let’s make a real movie with a real budget and we’ll call it f–ing Joker‘. That’s what it was.”
Phillips goal to make a ‘real’ movie and just take advantage of the extra comic book movie budget by calling it Joker is certainly a smart move. Not many dramas get the kind of funding and publicity this particular film is receiving.
We will see how audiences react to Joker and how this all plays out when it releases next month.
SEE ALSO: Joker gets a new poster and TV spot
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).
