Martin Scorsese Said He Considered Directing JOKER and Called It "a Remarkable Work"
While Martin Scorsese continues to talk about Marvel movies not being cinema, he recently revealed that he actually almost directed Joker for DC Entertainment and Warner Bros.! We knew at one point he was attached to it as a producer, but until now, it was never reported that he actually considered directing the movie.
During a recent interview with BBC, Scorsese explained, “I decided that I didn’t have the time for it. Todd told me, ‘Marty, this is yours,’ and [I said], ‘I don’t know if I want to.’ For personal reasons, I didn’t want to get involved, but I know the script very well.”
He said he “thought about it a lot over the past four years” but ultimately decided not to take the project because he didn’t want to spend the time or the inclination to make a film whose main figure develops “into a comic-book character.”
He went on to say that Joker is “a remarkable work” and praised Joaquin Phoenix’s performance. He also said that Joker doesn’t count as a superhero film, but regardless, he wasn’t sure whether he could direct it and make the “next step, which is… this character developing into a comic-book character. He develops into an abstraction. That doesn’t mean it’s bad art. It could be, but it’s not for me, you follow?”
He then went on to reiterate his view of superhero films calling them “another art form,” but they’re still not cinema. He adds:
“They’re not easy to make. There are a lot of very talented people doing good work, and a lot of young people really, really enjoy them. But I do think it’s more of…an extension of the amusement park.”
Scorsese is really stubborn about this whole cinema thing! He just won’t budge on it, which is kinda funny. I personally loved Joker and thought it was a great film. It would have been interesting to see what Scorsese’s vision of it would have been.