Joker director Todd Phillips debunked the initial reports claiming Leonardo DiCaprio was considered for the lead role before Joaquin Phoenix.
Next month, director Todd Phillips’ Joker will debut in theaters and interest in the film was heightened after the Joaquin Phoenix film screened at the Venice and Toronto Film Festival to mostly rave reviews. In fact, Joaquin Phoenix is already being touted as an early frontrunner for this year’s Best Actor awards for his performance as the Clown Prince of Crime.
When news of the standalone Joker film was first announced, Leonardo DiCaprio was reportedly Warner Bros. first choice for the role with Martin Scorsese being eyed to produce. However, director Todd Phillips told the New York Times that Joker was written with Joaquin Phoenix in mind, seemingly debunking reports that Leonardo DiCaprio was in the running:
“We wrote the movie for Joaquin.”
Leonardo DiCaprio was most recently seen in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as fictional Hollywood actor Rick Dalton. Next year, Leonardo DiCaprio will portray Joe Petrosino in Paramount’s English-language adaptation of the Italian crime film The Black Hand.
Do you think Leonardo DiCaprio would have delivered a great performance as the Joker? Would Todd Phillips’ Joker be an awards contender with Leonardo DiCaprio in the role? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Director Todd Phillips “Joker” centers around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone fictional story not seen before on the big screen. Phillips’ exploration of Arthur Fleck, who is indelibly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, is of a man struggling to find his way in Gotham’s fracturedsociety. A clown-for-hire by day, he aspires to be a stand-up comic at night…but finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes one bad decision that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events in this gritty character study.
Directed by Todd Phillips from a script he co-wrote with Scott Silver, Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix, Zazie Beetz, Bill Camp, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Glenn Fleshler, Douglas Hodge, Marc Maron, Josh Pais, and Shea Whigham.
Joker will be released in theaters on October 4, 2019.
Source: New York Times
