Joker Director Wanted to Disguise a 'Real' Movie as a Comic Book Film

Comic book films basically have their own formula, what with the heroes having tragic origins and moral by the time the credits roll. What's interesting is, Todd Phillips' Joker movie doesn't look anything like that, and apparently it wasn't meant to be a standard comic book film from the get-go.

Talking to the Wrap, Phillips addresses the controversy surrounding the film, and says that they didn't "make the movie to push buttons." Phillips continued:

"I literally described to [Joker star] Joaquin [Phoenix] at one point in those three months as like, ‘Look at this as a way to sneak a real movie in the studio system under the guise of a comic book film'. It wasn't, ‘We want to glorify this behavior.' It was literally like ‘Let's make a real movie with a real budget and we'll call it f–ing Joker'. That's what it was. "

One movie that Phillips has been calling out has been the latest John Wick film. He says that the movie is about a white male killing hundreds of people with guns, but everyone seems to be celebrating it, rather than talking about how it glorifies violence like they're doing with Joker. If anything, the movie isn't even portraying the Clown Prince of Crime as some hero, much like they do with the Wick franchise and their lead.

If anything, it seems that a lot of people have been connecting this movie to the Aurora mass shooting incident that happened back in 2012. Sure, the film took place during a screening of The Dark KnightRises, but it was a misreport that the killer had been calling himself the Joker when he did the attack. The connection is already out there, and I don't think the filmmakers can do much about it. At best, I don't think it will really hurt the chances of success of Joker is as good as the critics say.

Catch Joker in theaters Oct. 4.

Read Also: Joker Director Blames Outrage Culture for the Controversy Surrounding the Film