Hot on the heels of the first picture of a very plain-ass Joaquin Phoenix picture that Todd Phillips dropped on Instagram the other day, the Joker director has dropped another first look at his film’s titular character, including a look at Phoenix in what we’re presuming to be the Clown Prince of Crime’s final make-up. This has everything you would hope for in a first… teaser, we guess? It’s a camera test, but we’re getting enough of the tone here already that you might as well call it a full-on preview.
Anyways, here’s Phillips’ Instagram post for your viewing pleasure:
View this post on InstagramCamera test (w/ sound). Joker.
A post shared by Todd Phillips (@toddphillips1) on
Well, this may very well be the oddest studio film of 2019, and you know what? We’re kind of hyped for it.
Sure, this might be an interesting lateral for Phillips, mostly known for his comedies like Old School and The Hangover, and for Phoenix, whose work in You Were Never Really Here and The Sisters Brothers once again reminds us why he’s one of our greatest living actors, but we’re weirdly confident that this will at least be worthy of our undivided attention in the months to come.
The Joker movie boasts an utterly fucking bizarre supporting cast — Zazie Beetz, Robert De Niro, Marc Maron, Shea Whigham and Bill Camp — and an incredible executive producer in the G.O.A.T. Martin Scorsese, whose film The King of Comedy looks to be a major point of inspiration for Phillips and company here. There’s no available plot synopsis yet, but we highly recommend you check out the classic Alan Moore-penned comic The Killing Joke for some possible insights into what this film might be about. It may not have Batman’s dick in it, but it’s still well worth your time.
Joker hits theaters on October 4, 2019.
Featured image by Todd Phillips via Warner Bros.