Mr. J and the DC Movie Universe - A crazy few days....

Even by The Jokers standards, it has been a crazy few days at Warner Brothers.

It all started on Tuesday night when I saw a story break that WB and DC were moving forward with a new Joker movie, which would be an origin story, set in the late 80's, with a team of Todd Phillips (director of such 'masterpieces' as The Hangover and Road Trip), Scott Silver (writer of 8 Mile) and Martin Scorsese (yes THE Martin Scorsese) as director, co-writer and producer respectively.  It would feature a recast, younger Joker and reportedly be a hard boiled crime movie heavily influenced by the likes of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull.

To be honest, I had to check my calendar as I thought it was an April Fools Joke (befitting of Mr. J himself).  The creative team sounded eclectic to say the least, the idea of defining The Joker's origin sounded misguided at best, and to top it off, it would be divorced from the main DCEU continuity and would usher in a new brand of WB/DC movies which would be the movie equivalent of One Shot comic stories.  In other words, self contained stories that were under no pressure to be linked with the bigger, flagship movies.  This is an idea that came out of nowhere.  

I'm not opposed to this idea, as it would be akin to the Elseworlds series of comic stories, where ideas and stories are not part of continuity and creators were given license to reinterpret the characters in different ways.  And by the way, if this was announced and they didn't call these Elseworlds movies, it would represent a massive missed opportunity!  

But the Joker news has not stopped there.  

In a bid to further confuse audiences, while that part will be recast and away from continuity, Jared Leto would continue with the role in Suicide Squad 2 and Gotham City Sirens.  And these movies would be a part of the larger DC Movie Universe.

Now comes word, that ANOTHER Joker project is being lined up at WB for a Joker/Harley Quinn focused movie by the team that brought you such relevant hits as Crazy, Stupid, Love and I Love You Philip Morris.

In the words of the one and only Cyrus The Virus....

WHAT.  IS GOING.  ON?

And realistically, I'm not sure anyone knows the answer.

The fact that all this news seems to be leaking out over the course of a couple of days seems suspicious.  The creative teams seem ill suited to the material (in my humble opinion, and I'm happy to be proven wrong.  Aside from Scorsese of course, the thought of him working within the confines of DC makes me giddy).  The idea of simultaneously having two actors portray the same role, as well as having Jerome in Gotham, will surely confuse casual fans (and even comic fans!).

At this point DC/WB have limited goodwill from critics and audiences following the perceived mis-steps of Man of Steel, BvS and Suicide Squad.  They seemed to be on the right track again after the success of Wonder Woman, and the hiring of fan-favourite Joss Whedon to come in and finish off Justice League in the wake of Zack Snyder's unfortunate family tragedy.  Their San Diego Comic Con appearance was well received and the slate of movies announced were exciting.

So why, just over a month later, would you suddenly start announcing more movies?

There seems to be a consensus in the media that Hollywood has it in for DC/WB and will beat them down whenever possible.  That Marvel (now Disney owned) gets an easy ride from the critics compared to DC/WB's output.  And then there are reported 'leaks' and 'exclusives' which have no basis in facts.  A recent example of this was a report on Wonder Woman, then two months out from release, was a mess and WB were ready to wash their hands of it.  Well, that turned out to be wide of the mark!

I don't like to subscribe to this theory myself, but then reports like this leak out, with no official announcements or confirmations, and it seems like the media just want to confuse everyone.  All these 'announcements' are coming from sources such as Variety and Deadline Hollywood.  They are not coming from the Studio themselves.

My advice is to sit tight and wait.  Wait until it becomes official.  WB/DC's focus should be squarely on Justice League at this point, as they have a hell of a lot riding on the success of that movie (and it has it's own 'leaked' rumours to deal with as reports are Lex Luthor has been completely cut from the movie.  Again, not confirmed).  So why they would split focus into this Bat-shit idea is beyond me.

It all just sounds a little crazy to me at the moment, even for The Joker!

Until next time....