Warner Bros. wants Leonardo DiCaprio to waste time playing The Joker in dumb origin movie

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It looks like Warner Bros. is all-in on their Todd Phillips-directed, Martin Scorsese-produced Joker origin movie. The stand-alone film is not connected to the DCEU, and it’s meant to have a “super dark and real” feel “like on the streets of Brooklyn”. (They’re implying it’ll be like Brownsville, but it’ll probably be more like Williamsburg on Halloween.)

Jared Leto won’t be back as the clown prince of crime, which leaves many wondering who will play the role this time around. According to Heat Vision/The Hollywood Reporter, WB wants Leonardo DiCaprio or an actor of his caliber in the role. An offer has not been made to DiCaprio–and THR notes Scorsese’s deal to produce isn’t finalized yet–but clearly WB wants to make a serious, prestige film.

Because nothing says “classy” like a Joker origin story movie.

Come on, folks. Do we really need this at all? Who cares about The Joker’s origin? He’s more interesting as the Joker fully formed than some plain old jabroni. If you want an origin story, you can go read Alan Moore/Brian Bolland’s The Killing Joke, one of the dark 80s comics that spawned a million inferior imitations. (The Killing Joke is certainly a product of its angsty time. It was a good read when I was 13 years old, but these days I think it’s sort of overrated.)

Who would you cast in this potential waste of time, energy, talent? Let us know in the comments.

[via THR/Heat Vision]

Hubert Vigilla
Brooklyn-based fiction writer, film critic, and long-time editor and contributor for Flixist. A booster of all things passionate and idiosyncratic.