Joker is a 2019 American psychological thriller film directed by Todd Phillips, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Scott Silver. The film, based on DC Comics characters, stars Joaquin Phoenix as Joker. Set in 1981, it follows Arthur Fleck, a failed clown and aspiring stand-up comic whose descent into mental illness and nihilism inspires a violent countercultural revolution against the wealthy in a decaying Gotham City. Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz and Frances Conroy appear in supporting roles. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, Joker was produced by Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Films in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, Bron Creative and Joint Effort.
Phillips conceived Joker in 2016 and wrote the script with Silver throughout 2017. The two were inspired by 1970s character studies and the films of Martin Scorsese, particularly Taxi Driver (1976) and The King of Comedy (1982), who was initially attached to the project as a producer (and De Niro coincidentally featured on the both films). The film loosely adapts plot elements from Batman: The Killing Joke (1988), but Phillips and Silver otherwise did not look to specific comics for inspiration. Phoenix became attached in February 2018 and was cast that July, while the majority of the cast signed on by August. Principal photography took place in New York City, Jersey City and Newark, from September to December 2018. Joker is the first live-action theatrical Batman film to receive an R rating from the Motion Picture Association.
Joker premiered at the 76th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2019, where it won the Golden Lion, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 4. The film received polarizing reviews from critics, with praise directed toward Phoenix's performance, Phillips's direction, the visual style, editing, musical score, and cinematography, while the tone, portrayal of mental illness, lack of originality and handling of violence divided opinions. The film was a box office success and set records for an October release. It grossed over $1 billion, the first R-rated film to do so and became the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2019 during its theatrical run. The film also received numerous accolades. A sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, is set for release on October 4, 2024.
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A clown and aspiring stand-up comedian named Arthur Fleck lives with his mother, Penny, in crime-ridden Gotham City during the early 1980s recession. Arthur suffers from a neurological disorder that causes him to have random, uncontrollable laughing fits, requiring medication for which he depends on social services to obtain. After Arthur is attacked by street urchins, his co-worker Randall gives him a revolver for self-defense. Arthur pursues a relationship with his neighbor, single mother Sophie, and invites her to see his routine at a comedy club.
Arthur is fired from his job at a children's hospital when he accidentally exposes the gun despite his explanation that it was given to him by Randall, who denies this. While riding home on the subway still wearing his clown makeup, Arthur is mocked and beaten by drunk businessmen from Wayne Investments; he fatally shoots two of them in self-defense and murders the third as he attempts to flee. The killings are condemned by their employer, billionaire mayoral candidate Thomas Wayne, but protesters begin donning clown masks in Arthur's image. Budget cuts shut down the social service program, leaving Arthur without his medication.
Sophie attends Arthur's stand-up routine, which goes poorly; he laughs uncontrollably, and his jokes fall flat. Arthur intercepts a letter from Penny to Thomas, alleging that he is Thomas's illegitimate son, and berates his mother for hiding the truth. He goes to Wayne Manor, where he meets Thomas's young son Bruce, but flees after a scuffle with family butler Alfred Pennyworth. Penny suffers a stroke and is hospitalized. Arthur's idol, popular late-night talk show host Murray Franklin, presents clips of Arthur's failed performance on his show and mockingly calls him a "joker".
Arthur confronts Thomas at a film theatre. Thomas tells him that he is not his father, and Penny is not his biological mother. In denial, Arthur visits Arkham State Hospital and steals Penny's file, which states she was a narcissist who adopted Arthur while working as a housekeeper for the Waynes in the 1950s. Penny then raised Arthur with her abusive boyfriend, who later died in jail. Penny was sent to Arkham for allowing the abuse. Distraught, Arthur enters Sophie's apartment unannounced. Frightened, Sophie asks him to leave, revealing their relationship to be a figment of Arthur's imagination. The following day, Arthur smothers Penny to death at the hospital.
After his stand-up clips go viral, Arthur is invited to appear on Murray's show. He subsequently plans suicide during the broadcast. While crafting a clown-inspired persona, he is visited by Randall and another ex-colleague, Gary. Arthur kills Randall, but spares Gary for his kindness to him in the past. Two detectives investigating Arthur's involvement in the murders of the businessmen pursue him onto a subway filled with clown protesters. One detective accidentally shoots and kills a protester, thus inciting a riot, while Arthur escapes.
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Before the show goes live, Arthur asks Murray to introduce him as "Joker", a reference to his earlier mockery. Arthur behaves lewdly, tells morbid jokes, confesses to the subway murders, rants about how society abandons the downtrodden and mentally ill, and berates Murray for ridiculing him. After one more morbid joke, Arthur fatally shoots him on air. He is arrested, and riots erupt across the city. One of the rioters corners the Wayne family in an alley and murders Thomas and his wife, sparing Bruce. Rioters in an ambulance crash into the police car carrying Arthur, freeing him; he stands atop the car, starts to dance to the cheers of the crowd, and smears blood on his face into the shape of a smile.
At Arkham, Arthur laughs to himself about a joke while with a therapist, but declines to tell it, claiming she would not understand it. He leaves behind a trail of bloodied shoeprints as he is chased down a corridor by an orderly.
Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck / Joker: A mentally ill, impoverished party clown and stand-up comedian disregarded by society, whose history of abuse causes him to become a nihilistic criminal with a clown-inspired persona. Phoenix had been interested in a low-budget "character study" of a comic book character and said the film "feels unique, it is its own world in some ways and maybe It might as well be the thing that scares you the most". Phoenix lost 52 pounds for his role in the film.
Robert De Niro as Murray Franklin: A talk show host who plays a role in Arthur's downfall. De Niro said his role in Joker pays homage to his character from The King of Comedy (1982), Rupert Pupkin, who is a comedian obsessed with a talk-show host.
Zazie Beetz as Sophie Dumond: A cynical single mother and Arthur's "love interest". Beetz, a "huge fan" of Phoenix, said that it was "an honor" to costar with him and that she learned a lot working with him on set.
Frances Conroy as Penny Fleck: Arthur's mentally and physically ill mother, who formerly worked for Thomas Wayne.
Hannah Gross as young Penny.
Additionally, Brett Cullen portrays Thomas Wayne, a billionaire running for mayor of Gotham. Alec Baldwin was initially cast in the role, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. Carrie Louise Putrello portrays Thomas's wife Martha, although the character has no lines and is never referred to by name. Douglas Hodge plays Alfred Pennyworth, the butler and caretaker of the Wayne family, and Dante Pereira-Olson plays Bruce Wayne, Thomas' son, who becomes the Joker's archenemy Batman as an adult.
Additional cast members include Glenn Fleshler and Leigh Gill as Randall and Gary, Arthur's clown co-workers; Bill Camp and Shea Whigham as detectives Garrity and Burke in the Gotham City Police Department; Marc Maron as Gene Ufland, a producer on Franklin's show; Sharon Washington as Arthur's social worker; Josh Pais as Hoyt Vaughn, Arthur's agent; Brian Tyree Henry as Clark, a clerk at Arkham State Hospital; Ben Warheit, Michael Benz and Carl Lundstedt as bankers who harass Arthur; Gary Gulman and Sam Morril as comedians at an open mic where Arthur performs; and Bryan Callen as Javier, a co-worker of Arthur. Justin Theroux has an uncredited cameo as Ethan Chase, a celebrity guest on Franklin's show.
Development
refer to caption
Joker director Todd Phillips in 2016
Between 2014 and 2015, Joaquin Phoenix expressed interest to his agent in acting in a low-budget "character study" type of film about a comic book villain, like DC Comics character the Joker. Phoenix had thought of the idea 1 to 2 years before Phillips conceived Joker in 2016. Phoenix had previously declined to act in the Marvel Cinematic Universe because he would have been required to reprise a role, such as the Hulk (initially portrayed by Edward Norton before he was recast by Mark Ruffalo) or Doctor Strange (ultimately portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch), in multiple films. Phoenix ruled out the Joker for his "character study" idea and tried to think of a different one. "I thought, 'You can't do the Joker, because, you know, it's just you can't do that character, it's just been done'". Phoenix's agent suggested setting up an exploratory meeting with Warner Bros., but he declined and let go of the idea. Similarly, Todd Phillips had been offered to direct comic-based films a number of times, but declined because he thought they were "loud" and did not interest him. According to Phillips, Joker was created from his idea to create a different, more grounded comic book film. He was attracted to the Joker because he did not think there was a definitive portrayal of the character, which he knew would provide considerable creative freedom.
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Phillips pitched the idea for Joker to Warner Bros. after his film War Dogs premiered in August 2016. Prior to War Dogs, Phillips was mostly known for his comedy films, such as Road Trip (2000), Old School (2003) and The Hangover (2009); War Dogs marked a venture into more unsettling territory. During the premiere, Phillips realized "War Dogs wasn't going to set the world on fire and I was thinking, 'What do people really want to see?' In addition, he found that it was difficult to make comedy films in the "woke culture", throughout opposition of "30 million people on Twitter". He finally thought that "How do I do something irreverent, but fuck comedy? Oh I know, let's take the comic book movie universe and turn it on its head with this". He proposed that DC Films differentiate its slate from the competing Marvel Studios' by producing low-budget, standalone films. After the successful release of Wonder Woman (2017), DC Films decided to deemphasize the shared nature of its DC-based film franchise, the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). In August 2017, Warner Bros. and DC Films revealed plans for the film, with Phillips directing and co-writing with Scott Silver and Martin Scorsese set to co-produce with Phillips. According to Tatiana Siegel of The Hollywood Reporter, Scorsese considered directing Joker before Phillips was chosen, though a Warner Bros. source said he only became involved because the film needed a New York City-based producer.
According to Kim Masters and Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter, Jared Leto, who portrayed the Joker in the DCEU, was displeased by the existence of a project separate from his interpretation. In October 2019, Masters reported that Leto "felt 'alienated and upset'" when he learned that Warner Bros.—which had promised him a standalone DCEU Joker film—let Phillips proceed with Joker, going as far as to ask his music manager Irving Azoff to get the project canceled. Masters added that Leto's irritation was what caused him to end his association with Creative Artists Agency (CAA), as he believed "his agents should have told him about the Phillips project earlier and fought harder for his version of Joker". However, sources associated with Leto deny that he attempted to get Joker canceled and left CAA because of it.
Warner Bros. pushed for Phillips to cast Leonardo DiCaprio as the Joker, hoping to use his frequent collaborator Scorsese's involvement to attract him. However, Phillips said that Phoenix was the only actor he considered, and that he and Silver wrote the script with Phoenix in mind, "The goal was never to introduce Joaquin Phoenix into the comic book movie universe. The goal was to introduce comic book movies into the Joaquin Phoenix universe". Phoenix said when he learned of the film, he became excited because it was the kind he was looking to make, describing it as unique and stating it did not feel like a typical "studio movie". It took him some time to commit to the role, as it intimidated him and he said "oftentimes, in these movies, we have these simplified, reductive archetypes and that allows for the audience to be distant from the character, just like we would do in real life, where it's easy to label somebody as evil and therefore say, 'Well, I'm not that.
Writing
It was a yearlong process from when we finished the script just to get the new people on board with this vision, because I pitched it to an entirely different team than made it. There were emails about: 'You realize we sell Joker pajamas at Target.' There were a zillion hurdles, and you just sort of had to navigate those one at a time At the time, I would curse them in my head every day. But then I have to put it in perspective and go, 'They're pretty bold that they did this.'
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Todd Phillips
Phillips and Silver wrote Joker throughout 2017 and the writing process took about a year. According to producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff, it took some time to get approval for the script from Warner Bros., partly because of concerns over the content. Similarly, Phillips commented that there were "a zillion hurdles" during the year-long writing process due to the visibility of the character. Phillips said that while the script's themes may reflect modern society, the film was not intended to be political. He also noted that Joker is a story about child trauma and mental illness. In their script, Phillips talked about how difficult it is for patients to reveal their diagnoses, referring to a line from the film: "The worst part of having a mental illness is that people expect you to behave as if you don't".
The script draws inspiration from Scorsese films such as Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980) and The King of Comedy (1983), as well as Phillips' Hangover Trilogy. Other films Phillips has cited as inspiration include character studies released in the 1970s—such as Serpico (1973) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)—the silent film The Man Who Laughs (1928) and several musicals. Phillips said that aside from the tone, he did not consider Joker that different from his previous work, such as his Hangover films. The film's premise was inspired by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke (1988), which depicts the Joker as a failed stand-up comedian, while the climactic talk show scene was inspired by a similar scene in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns (1986). However, Phillips said the film does not "follow anything from the comic books. That's what was interesting to me. We're not even doing Joker, but the story of becoming Joker". Phillips later clarified that he meant they did not look to a specific comic for inspiration, but rather "picked and chose what we liked" from the character's history. Having grown up in New York, Phillips also drew inspiration from life in New York City during the early 1980s. The Subway shooting scene and its aftermath were inspired by the 1984 New York City Subway shooting, while Arthur Fleck is partially based on the shooting's perpetrator, Bernhard Goetz.
Phillips and Silver found the most common Joker origin story, in which the character is disfigured after falling into a vat of acid, too unrealistic. Instead, they used certain elements of the Joker lore to produce an original story, which Phillips wanted to feel as authentic as possible. Because the Joker does not have a definitive origin story in the comics, Phillips and Silver were given considerable creative freedom and "pushed each other every day to come up with something totally insane". While the Joker had appeared in several films before, Phillips thought it was possible to produce a new story featuring the character. "It's just another interpretation, like people do interpretations of Macbeth", he told The New York Times. However, they did try to retain the ambiguous "multiple choice" nature of the Joker's past by positioning the character as an unreliable narrator—with entire storylines simply being his delusions and left what mental illnesses he suffers from unclear. As such, Phillips said the entire film is open to interpretation.
When a draft of the film's script, written in April 2018, was leaked and spread on the internet, Phillips stated that it was an old version from six months before filming began. Phillips also declined to take legal action against the spread of the script, stating that he liked having an old version circulate.
Pre-production
The logo of Joker. Chad Danielely printed the logo "aggressive / transparency / scraping / noise" effects, by letterpress using old wood type.
Following the disappointing critical and financial performance of Justice League (2017), in January 2018 Walter Hamada replaced Jon Berg as the head of DC-based film production at Warner Bros. Hamada sorted through the various DC films in development, canceling some while advancing work on others; the film was set to begin filming in late 2018 with a small budget of $55 million. Kim Masters of The Hollywood Reporter said Warner Bros. was reluctant to let Joker move forward and gave it a small budget in an effort to dissuade Phillips. Phillips said that Hamada did not understand what he was trying to do. By June, Robert De Niro was under consideration for a supporting role in the film. The deal with Phoenix was finalized in July 2018, after four months of persuasion from Phillips. Immediately afterwards, Warner Bros. officially green-lit the film, titled it Joker and gave it an October 4, 2019, release date. Warner Bros. described the film as "an exploration of a man disregarded by society that is not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale".
Scorsese's longtime associate Koskoff joined to produce, although Scorsese left his producing duties due to other obligations. Scorsese considered serving as an executive producer, but was preoccupied with his film The Irishman. It was also confirmed that the film would have no effect on Leto's Joker and would be the first in a new series of DC films unrelated to the DCEU. In July, Zazie Beetz was cast in a supporting role and De Niro entered negotiations in August. Frances McDormand declined an offer to portray the mother of the Joker and Frances Conroy was cast. At the end of July, Marc Maron, and Bryan Callen joined the cast. Alec Baldwin was cast as Thomas Wayne on August 27, but dropped out two days later due to scheduling conflicts. Baldwin also noted the character's description as a reason for his departure, which called Thomas Wayne "a cheesy and tanned businessman who is more in the mold of a 1980s Donald Trump".
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Filming
The Newark Paramount Theatre. Street scenes were filmed in front of the abandoned theater in Downtown Newark, New Jersey.
A corrugated silver metal subway train sits with its doors open in a station. Its rollsign reads "0 Local / To Old Gotham all times / Downtown & Tricorner".
A New York City Subway C train with a rollsign for the fictional 0 train left over from filming for Joker
Principal photography commenced in September 2018 in New York City, under the working title Romeo. Shortly after filming began, De Niro, Brett Cullen, Shea Whigham, Glenn Fleshler, Bill Camp, Josh Pais and Douglas Hodge were announced to have joined the film, with Cullen replacing Baldwin. Bradley Cooper joined the film as a producer, and the director of photography was Lawrence Sher, both of whom Phillips had previously collaborated with. On September 22, a scene depicting a violent protest was filmed at the Church Avenue station in Kensington, Brooklyn, although the station was modified to look like the Bedford Park Boulevard station in the Bronx. Filming of violent scenes also took place at the abandoned lower platform of the Ninth Avenue station in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
According to Beetz, Phillips rewrote the entire script during production; because Phoenix lost so much weight for the film, there would not be an opportunity for reshoots. She recalled, "we would go into Todd's trailer and write the scene for the night and then do it. During hair and makeup we'd memorize those lines and then do them and then we'd reshoot that three weeks later". Phillips recalled Phoenix sometimes walked off-set during filming because he lost self-control and needed to compose himself—to the confusion of other actors, who felt they had done something wrong. De Niro was one of the few Phoenix never walked out on and De Niro said he was "very intense in what he was doing, as it should be, as he should be".
Filming in Jersey City started on September 30 and shut down Newark Avenue, while filming in November, starting on November 9, shut down Kennedy Boulevard. Filming in Newark began on October 13 and lasted until October 16. Shortly before the Newark filming, SAG-AFTRA received a complaint that extras were locked in subway cars for more than three hours during filming in Brooklyn, a break violation. The issue was quickly resolved after a representative visited the set. That month, Dante Pereira-Olson joined the cast as a young Bruce Wayne. Whigham said towards the end of October the film was in "the middle" of production, adding that it was an "intense" and "incredible" experience. By mid-November, filming had moved back to New York. Filming wrapped on December 3, 2018, with Phillips posting a picture on his Instagram feed later in the month to commemorate the occasion.
In The Hollywood Reporter interview, Emma Tillinger Koskoff said that most stressful filming was the "Stair Dance" scene; because there were no laws on paparazzi in New York City, filming was disrupted by them. The South Bronx stairs used for the biographical crime film American Gangster (2007) were originally to be used for these scenes, according to The New York Times, but were deemed too repaved and beautified to be aesthetically acceptable for the film's tone. Initially, Lawrence Sher and Phillips had wanted to film on 65mm film for the 70mm format, but Warner Bros. rejected this due to cost, and the film was subsequently shot in using Arri Alexa 65 digital cameras. Warner Bros. did however end up giving Joker a limited theatrical release in converted 70mm and 35mm presentations.
