We’re over a year away from Joaquin Phoenix’ Joker movie but fans have already noted a sinister shift in the incredible actor’s physique, hinting perhaps that you don’t need an accidental acid bath to become the Clown Prince of Crime.
Phoenix was spotted gracing the red carpet at the Toronto International Film Festival looking ever so slightly skeletal prompting speculation he’s lost weight to play the Joker.
In the comics, The Joker is known for his lean, mean physique and Phoenix’ new body shape – ahead of filming next month – may offer a tantalising glimpse at a comic book accurate take on the Harlequin of Hate.
Fans on Twitter are excited at the prospect of a new Joker, a character who they’re all hoping will be reborn from the ashes of Jared Leto’s disastrous portrayal like a grinning psychopathic phoenix.
Check out their reaction to Phoenix’ new look…
Here’s hoping that they go for a nice plum coloured suit this time as opposed to whatever it was Jared Leto was wearing…
Anyway, while we don’t have any specific idea what Joaquin’s Joker will look like we can take an educated guess based on previous incarnations of the character.
More than that we asked our talented art team to work on producing a hypothetical Joaquin Joker just for you dear reader.
Unfortunately, though they were busy so I hastily photoshopped together the following photo instead. Enjoy…
Joaquin’s Joker as envisioned by me (Don’t @ me)…
To be fair Phoenix’ Joker (or at least our interpretation) looks an awful lot like Mikel Janín’s version of the character from Tom King’s current run on the Batman book.
Directed and written by The Hangover’s Todd Phillips, the Ace of Knaves’ latest outing is rumoured to be titled Joker and will explore Gotham City during the 1980s as well as the character’s origin.
Describing his work with Todd Phillips to Collider, Phoenix said:
He seems to have a very interesting understanding of this world and what he’s trying to say. And so there is something very appealing about that and working with him on this particular project.
It feels unique, it is its own world in some ways, and maybe, mostly, it scares the fucking shit out of me or something. It might as well be the thing that scares you the most.
Unlike other superhero movies, Joker’s reported to be a super low budget production, with a budget of around $55 million which may sound like a lot but is tiny in comparison to something like Infinity War or Justice League.
Warner Bros have claimed Joker will be an ‘exploration of a man disregarded by society [that] is not only a gritty character study but also a broader cautionary tale’ and described it as a ‘hard-boiled crime drama’.
Phoenix isn’t the only big name attached to the project, Robert De Niro and Frances Conroy have both finalized a deal to appear in the film lending Joker some considerable star power.
The way things are shaping up Joker could be a classic definitive take on the character, and yet that’s an issue for me after all isn’t the Joker scarier when we know nothing about where he comes from?
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More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.