Joker Might be Heading to the Venice Film Festival
While lots of film lovers and writers have their eyes on this week’s San Diego Comic-Con, there’s some interesting news concerning the Venice Film Festival. Variety reports that Todd Phillips‘ Joker might be headed to the fest. We recently learned that film is a true original, meaning, it’s not based on any pre-existing comic book storylines. Sending the film to Venice would further mark Joker as a film with serious awards season potential. There’s a slew of high profile films that will likely launch there, including the Brad Pitt space epic Ad Astra, Noah Baumbach’s untitled new project, and Tom Harper’s The Aeronauts.
Warner Bros. has eyed the fest in years past to launch films they think are Oscar-worthy. Last year the studio brought Bradley Cooper‘s A Star Is Born to Venice and previously launched Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity there in 2013. By debuting Joker at Venice, Warner Bros. would also be positioning Joaquin Phoenix’s turn as the iconic Batman villain for awards consideration. The Venice lineup will be announced on July 25.
If Joker does have its worldwide premiere in Venice to strong reviews, you can look for the film to travel—likely to Telluride and Toronto—where the awards buzz would only get stronger. Regardless, there’s clearly a lot of excitement around the Phillips’ origin story. Phoenix is one of the best actors of his generation, and he’s surrounded by a great cast, including Zazie Beetz, Robert De Niro, Bill Camp, Brian Tyree Henry, Shea Whigham, and Frances Conroy (as Arthur’s mother, Penny—a crucial character).
Here’s Warner Bros. official synopsis for Joker:
Joker centers around the iconic arch-nemesis and is an original, standalone story not seen before on the big screen. The exploration of Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), a man disregarded by society, is not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale
Joker is due in theaters on October 4, 2019.
Featured image: ‘Joker’ theatrical poster. Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
