Given the sensibilities of “Road Trip,” “Old School,” the celebrated movie version of “Starsky & Hutch” and “The Hangover” trilogy, all roads have clearly been leading filmmaker Todd Phillips to direct, what else, Warner Bros.’ dark and gritty version of “The Joker” movie starring Joaquin Phoenix. As cameras are set to roll in a number of days on September 10, and it’s literally too late to abort the entire idea, Alec Baldwin has joined the cast of Phillips’ ‘Joker’ movie as Thomas Wayne, aka Batman’s father.
In the comics, a young Bruce Wayne witnesses his mother and father killed on the streets of Gotham City. The anger, guilt, and regret of his powerlessness leads Wayne to take up the Batman persona in a vigilante crusade as the Batman. As a ‘Joker’ origin story focusing on how the Joker became a criminal mastermind, Bruce Wayne is presumably still a child, and Thomas Wayne is still an alive-and-kicking wealthy billionaire philanthropist.
“The Joker,” which has nothing to do with the other Joker in Warner Bros. DC Comics world starring Jared Leto, stars Robert De Niro, Frances Conroy, Marc Maron, and Zazie Beetz as a single mother named Sophie Dumond. The movie, aside from being darker and mature is said to have an ‘80s sensibility.
While Deadline breaks the news, various reporters have swooped as well; some noting Baldwin took the role after Viggo Mortensen passed on the part. THR also adds that Phillips might be pulling a little bit from Baldwin’s recurring role on “Saturday Night Live” as the Dimwit-In-Chief. “Sources say the script paints Thomas Wayne as a cheesy and tanned businessman who is more in the mold of a 1980s Donald Trump.” Variety says De Niro is portraying a talk-show host who “plays a part in driving Phoenix’s character to go mad.”
“The Joker” is much more modestly budgeted at $55 million compared to most mega-costing superhero movies. The movie has been compared to a crime film with the dark comedic sensibilities of Martin Scorsese’s “The King Of New York” and even “Taxi Driver” being thrown around as a touchstone (Scorsese was initially attached as an executive producer on the project, but seems distantly related to the project at best now).
While Warner Bros. and DC Films are developing multiple films with the same superheroes and villains, with the introduction of the senior Wayne, it appears the studios may be looking to eventually cross things over with Matt Reeves’ gestating “The Batman,” which is also set to be outside the current DC Universe with Wonder Woman, the Flash, Cyborg, et. al, but with the plans as scattered as they are right now, who knows at this point.
BREAKING: Alec Baldwin to play Thomas Wayne in the JOKER movie. This is the role that Viggo Mortensen passed on. I'm told that Wayne Manor will be a location in the film. The plot thickens…
— Jeff Sneider (@TheInSneider) August 27, 2018