Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 30 august 2019
Fall Movie Preview: 'Joker' gets a prestige makeover

By LINDSEY BAHR treated like a standard
Associated Press comic book movie release
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The and instead getting the roll-
Joker has been around for out of an Oscar contender
almost 80 years and there's with high-profile premieres
no shortage of portray- at the most prestigious fall
als. There are even some film festivals — Venice and
legendary ones by Jack Toronto — before it hits the-
Nicholson and Heath Led- aters on Oct. 4. Even War-
ger. But by most accounts, ner Bros., the studio with the
Joaquin Phoenix's spin on keys to the DC Comics uni-
the quintessential Batman verse, largely left writer-di-
villain is unlike anything au- rector Todd Phillips alone to
diences have seen. do what he wanted to do
It's why "Joker" isn't being with the character: Make

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Joaquin Phoenix in a scene from "Joker," in
theaters on Oct. 4.
Associated Press

a realistic character study Tillinger Koskoff, who has what's come before, some
in the vein of Martin Scors- been working with Scorsese wildly inaccurate informa-
ese' 1970s films about how since "The Departed." tion has circulated around
struggling stand-up come- "It's not my preferred genre, the internet. For one, Scors-
dian Arthur Fleck became the comic book genre," ese was never set to pro-
the Joker. Koskoff said. "I literally can't duce. The two had emailed
"He doesn't fall into a vat of watch those movies. I try about the script privately,
acid and come out laugh- but I can't. I should but I but Scorsese was always
ing," Phillips said. "That's a can't. But I love this mov- going to be tied up with
comic book thing." ie. Even if I didn't work on post-production on "The
So, Phillips and his co-writer this movie I would love this Irishman" right when "Joker"
Scott Silver ("8 Mile," ''The movie." was shooting. Also, Phillips
Fighter") ran all the ele- She helped make "Joker" a didn't call the program-
ments of what we know real New York movie, bring- ming director of the Venice
about the Joker, a charac- ing along some of her best International Film Festival
ter without an origin story, crew from "The Irishman" and ask for "Joker" to be in
through a "real world filter" and using her deep knowl- competition — they were
— his look, his laugh and edge of filming in the city simply invited and accept-
his personality. For the most that she describes as both ed. And that leaked script
part that meant ditching the best and the toughest. going around? If it's what
the source material. Even They shot in over 30 loca- Phillips thinks it is — a draft
the comedian element, tions in the Bronx, Queens, from April 2018 — he said,
which actually has some Brooklyn, Manhattan and "They're in for a big surprise
basis in the comics, was the surrounding areas, when they see the movie."
kind of accidental. like Newark, New Jersey, The script changed quite
"We didn't even really know which served as the "Times a bit between that ver-
that when we wrote it," Phil- Square" of Gotham City. sion and when they began
lips said of its convenient "What Todd did here is re- shooting last September.
tie-in with "The Killing Joke" ally unique and special," Warner Bros. made him
graphic novel. she added. "I think it's going jump through "many hoops"
He's a "villain" that is pre- to catapult him to another before they said yes, but
sented in an empathetic level and take him out of once they settled on a
way. the comedy world." budget number, which Phil-
"You're kind of on his side Phillips became a Holly- lips will only say is low for the
until you can't be any lon- wood success for making movie world and enormous
ger," Phillips said. That point massively popular grown- for the real world, he said
has been different for ev- up frat boy comedies they stepped aside.
eryone he's showed it to so like "Old School" and "The "They were incredibly bold
far. Hangover" series. In other in just saying, 'Ok there are
Their unique approach, words, a serious spin on a no rules just go do your
and that their No. 1 choice comic book character is a thing,'" he said. "It was
agreed to do it, also helped departure for him too. And amazing." It's fairly extraor-
attract talent who wouldn't he's getting used to all the dinary considering the
necessarily do a movie attention and scrutiny in character happens to be
based on a comic char- the lead up to the release. tied up in the current itera-
acter, including two Scors- With a character this known tion of the DC Extended
ese mainstays: Robert De and a film that doesn't Universe films and played
Niro and producer Emma seem to fit any mold of by Jared Leto.q