It’s being reported that the Clown Prince will be getting a stand alone origin film, and it will be produced by the King of Crime films, Martin Scorsese. The director will be producing the film for Warner Bros., from a script by Scott Silver (8 Mile) and Todd Phillips (The Hangover), who will also direct. The story, which will chronicle the Joker’s rise in the Gotham crime world, will take place in the early 80’s. According to Deadline writer Mike Flemming Jr., “The intention is to make a gritty and grounded hard-boiled crime film[…] that isn’t meant to feel like a DC movie as much as one of Scorsese’s films from that era, like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull or The King Of Comedy.” There is no word on casting yet, but it will likely be a younger actor, and presumably not Jared Leto.
While this film sounds like a fantastic idea, making a DC movie that is not connected to the current DC Cinematic Universe may not be, as the studio is having difficulty finding the same footing in that department that Marvel has. A Joker origin story in the style of an early 80’s Scorsese film could be amazing, but our prediction is that the film never makes it to production. It just sounds too good to be true.
Source: Deadline