DC is Developing a Joker Origin Movie with Producer Martin Scorsese and Director Todd Phillips

Warner Bros and DC Entertainment are throwing another card in the hat of Batman Universe spinoff movies. This one telling the origin story of Bruce Wayne's signature villain The Joker. The Hangover‘s Todd Phillips will direct the film and is also writing the script with 8 Mile writer Scott Silver. Martin Scorsese will work with Phillips to produce the project. 

Deadline Hollywood reports that the intention is to make an origin story that isn’t connected to any other film. The Joker has memorably been part of three Batman movies, from Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger, to Jared Leto in the Suicide Squad film. Leto will reprise the role in the Suicide Squad sequel and the Harley Quinn spinoff, but this new origin film will launch the character with a different actor, possibly younger.

Filmmakers also intend on making a gritty and grounded hard-boiled crime film, like many of Scorsese's films, set in early-’80s Gotham City that isn’t meant to feel like a DC movie. Phillips and Silver are apparently writing already, but there is no hint at where this story will eventually fit into the DC schedule.

What do you think about getting a standalone movie about a character as iconic as the Joker without any connections to films that we've already seen him appear in? Brilliant idea, or waste of time?