It’s been four months since we finally got to see a trailer for Todd Phillips’ Joker spinoff. Regardless, the nature of the film is still a mystery. It clearly draws more from the work of Martin Scorsese than the original DC Comics. Yet any movie featuring the Clown Prince of Crime can’t help but invite the curiosity of all Bat-savvy moviegoers. Now, Warner Bros. is ramping up the film’s marketing campaign with a new rundown of its plot (via Heroic Hollywood).
Like any good synopsis, this new overview paints the story in broad strokes. Still, it touches on enough key details to pique our interest and give us a better idea of the film’s depiction of the title character. You can read it for yourself 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 fractured society. 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.”
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The last part of the synopsis suggests that the story pulls more from the comics than Phillips previously let on. Describing Arthur Fleck as a down-on-his-luck stand-up comedian recalls the flashback scenes in Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s Batman: The Killing Joke. Based on what we’ve seen so far, it’s unlikely that Arthur will have a pregnant wife to care for as well. However, it nonetheless sounds like the filmmakers have found a way to honor some of the source material after all.
What do you think of the new synopsis for Joker? Give us your impressions in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading – Batman: The Killing Joke (Deluxe Edition)
