When Todd Phillips’ Joker hits theaters, fans will see a different kind of comic book film. But while some fans were up in arms about the director’s recent interview, Phillips assured them that he had been misquoted during a recent Joker screening in Los Angeles. Via Collider, Phillips explained that his Empire Magazine interview wasn’t the full picture of what he had in mind.
“I’m not going to complain, I like the writer and he did a great piece, but actually we didn’t take anything from the comic book world. It’s actually not what I said,” related Kinberg. “What I said was we didn’t take anything from one particular comic. We kind of picked and chose what we liked from the kind of eighty-year canon of Joker and said, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’ We kind of pulled a few things that we liked, but yes, could it have been called Arthur and just be about a clown? Maybe. I just thought there’s a new way to tell a comic book movie, and maybe I’m wrong, but let’s do it as a character study.”
“But a big part of what interested me about it more than making a movie called Arthur was to deconstruct the comic book movie a little bit,” added Phillips. “That was part of what was exciting about it. For him, it might be different, because I know that you had a lot of reticence, being in a comic book movie and doing that kind of thing.”
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He also touched upon how the Joker movie is defined with different viewers.
“I’ve had younger people watch the movie, and just go, ‘This is an awesome origin story of the Joker that I would have never thought of,’” continued Phillips. “Then we’ve had other people that are more seasoned watching movies that see references or see, ‘Oh, this is reflective of what’s going on today.’ And so it’s always difficult, when you make a movie, to define it for people, because your job is to make the movie.”
The full interview with Phillips and Phoenix is available here.
Joker arrives in theaters on October 4.
What do you think about Phillips’ approach to Joker? Let us know in the comments below!
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