Production recently began on director Todd Phillips’ first DC film, set to follow the the Joker’s transformation into Batman’s nemesis. Now, Phillips has offered the first look at actor Joaquin Phoenix as the Clown Prince of Crime. The photo was captioned “Arthur,” confirming earlier reports that the Joker’s real name is Arthur Fleck.
Along with the photo, a set video of Phoenix strolling the streets of Gotham circa 1980 has also hit the Internet. The clip, procured by Daily Mail, sees Arthur casually walking out of the Ha-Ha Talent Agency. As he makes his way down the filthy street, a half-dressed clown approaches him. The pair begin to argue and Arthur is seen pulling some disturbing expressions before ripping the clown’s fake nose off.
It seems even without the iconic clown make-up and scarred grin, Phoenix is still channeling those Joker vibes.
According to reports, the standalone movie is set to chronicle the villain’s origin story, following his criminal descent after his comedian aspirations fall flat. Recently, Phoenix expressed his excitement for the project and shared that it doesn’t really stick to one style.
“I wouldn’t quite classify this as like any genre,” Phoenix said. “I wouldn’t say it’s a superhero movie, or a studio movie or a … It feels unique, and I think more then anything, and probably the most important thing, is Todd seems very passionate about it and very giving, and so that’s exciting.”
“I think, underneath the excitement of these films, and the size of them, there are these incredible characters that are dealing with real life struggles. And sometimes that is uncovered and exposed, and sometimes it isn’t, and so I always felt, like, there were characters in comics that were really interesting and deserve the opportunity to be kind of studied. And so I think that’s what Todd sees appealing about this idea,” Phoenix said.
The film is scheduled for release on October 4, 2019.