Six new Joker Clips Reveal Gritty Origin Story
This Wednesday, August 28, we’ll get a new trailer for Joker. Warner Bros. doesn’t want you to twiddle your thumbs until then, so they’ve taken to Instagram and released six fresh clips from the film. These include some bits we’ve seen before, but also some intriguing new material. These brief clips also help establish the grittier tone that co-writer/director Todd Phillips has gone for here. We’ve been hearing quite a bit lately about the inspiration behind Joaquin Phoenix’s take on the most iconic villain of all time, including what got the choosy actor interested in the role in the first place. The fact that Phillips’ Joker doesn’t come from any comic book storyline means that we’re in completely new territory here. Hence, each new clip gives us another piece to this intriguing puzzle.
The first clip features Robert De Niro, who plays Murray Franklin, a popular talk show host. Franklin is also a callback to De Niro’s iconic role in Martin Scorsese’s 1983’s film The King of Comedy.
View this post on Instagram
The second clip gives us Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck, now apparently transformed into his criminal alter ego the Joker, dancing his way down some stairs.
View this post on Instagram
The third clip, bizarrely (and wonderfully), shows us Fleck opening his fridge door and, well, getting inside his fridge.
View this post on Instagram
The fourth clip gives us a more contemplative Joker, possibly preparing for a bout of serious criminal activity?
View this post on Instagram
Joker at a full sprint in the fifth clip almost definitely means something terrible has happened, no?
View this post on Instagram
And finally, Arthur Fleck walking in driving rain.
View this post on Instagram
All of the clips offer a sense of the gritty, realistic tone that Phillips has said he was going for. It puts Joker, tonally, closer to Scorsese’s Taxi Driver than, say, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, which of course featured Heath Ledger’s iconic performance as the Clown Prince of Chaos.
We’ll know a bit more when the trailer drops this Wednesday.
Joker will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival this week, then open in the states on October 4, 2019.
Featured image: Caption: (Center) JOAQUIN PHOENIX as Arthur Fleck in Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures and BRON Creative’s tragedy “JOKER,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Niko Tavernise. Copyright: © 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
