Joaquin Phoenix Won't Be Intimidated By Heath Ledger‘s Version of The Joker if He Takes on The Role

As you all know, Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment are currently developing a Joker origin film with director Todd Philips and producer Martin Scorsese. They want Joaquin Phoenix to take on the role of the Crown Prince of Crime. We know that the actor is interested and is in talks, regardless of him saying that he has no idea he's involved with the film.

I'm actually pretty fascinated with the idea of this team of talent coming together to develop a standalone Joker movie. It very well could turn out amazing. Phoenix still isn't officially saying that he's going to be in the movie or not, but in a recent interview with Collider, they talked Phoenix about what Christopher Nolan and Heath Ledger did with the Joker in The Dark Knight. When asked if that might intimidate actors from wanting to play the Joker in a future movie, Pheonix explained why it wouldn't intimidate him:

"I don’t know about that movie or character specifically, but I was thinking about it’s interesting with comics there’s different writers and artists that come on. It’s different than this character from literature being uniquely that. There are different interpretations. It’s so interesting; I was just thinking about it today, it seems so unique in some ways to comic books. I think there’s probably room for that. Maybe it’s like doing a play, like you always hear about people doing something, ‘You should have seen this actor in this performance,’ but then other actors do it and it’s a different kind of film. I think that genre, comic books, kind of lends itself to having different people play the same character and interpret it in a different way. It’s kind of built into the source material in some ways. I think it’s cool when people do that."

This obviously isn't a confirmation that Phoenix will play the Joker. The guy has been very tight-lipped about all this! He does a great job of navigating around what the interviewers are trying to get out of him. I imagine that no one will officially say anything until the deal is officially done.

I would love to see Phoenix take on the role because it would be so wildly different from anything that we've seen before. 

The movie is said to "delve into what it took for the Joker to become a mastermind criminal. Sources say the story will take place in the ’80s and have more of the look of a gritty crime drama than comic book movie."

If Phoenix doesn't take on the role of The Joker in the movie, who else would you like to see?