Todd Phillips’ distinctly low-budget Joker will be receiving an R-rating in theatres, just as it was promised to have.
The Joker movie has officially been given an R-rating from the MPAA for “strong bloody violence, disturbing behavior, language and brief sexual images.” Joker centers around the titular villain and is an original, standalone story not seen before. Phillips’ exploration of Arthur Fleck, portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, is of a man struggling to find his way in Gotham’s fractured society. A clown-for-hire by day, he aspires to be a stand-up comic at night, but finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes one bad decision that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events in this gritty character study.
Three-time Oscar nominee Phoenix (The Master, Walk the Line, Gladiator) stars in the titular role as Arthur/the Joker alongside Oscar winner Robert De Niro (Raging Bull, The Godfather: Part II) as Franklin. The film also stars Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2), Frances Conroy (TV’s American Horror Story, Hulu’s Castle Rock), Marc Maron (TV’s Maron, GLOW), Bill Camp (Red Sparrow, Molly’s Game), Glenn Fleshler (TV’s Billions, Barry), Shea Whigham (First Man, Kong: Skull Island), Brett Cullen (42, Netflix’s Narcos), Douglas Hodge (Red Sparrow, TV’s Penny Dreadful), and Josh Pais (the upcoming Motherless Brooklyn, Going in Style).
Oscar nominee Phillips (Borat, The Hangover trilogy) directs from a screenplay he co-wrote with fellow Oscar-nominated writer Scott Silver (The Fighter), based on characters from DC. The film is produced by Phillips and Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born, American Sniper) under their Joint Effort banner, and Oscar nominee Emma Tillinger Koskoff (The Wolf of Wall Street). It is executive produced by Michael E. Uslan, Walter Hamada, Aaron L. Gilbert, Joseph Garner, Richard Baratta, and Bruce Berman.
Joker is slated to hit theaters on October 4th, less than two months from now. This film is deliberately distancing itself from every other superhero flick on the market, so we’re very interested to see how it plays out.