If you’ve been following the rather weird ride surrounding the upcoming DC comics movie Joker, you may want to strap yourself in. News broke yesterday that none other than Alec Baldwin was being tapped to co-star. What part you ask? Why none other than that of Batman’s tragically doomed father, Thomas Wayne (His wife’s name eludes me). Just, maybe not in the way you might envision the character.
As The Hollywood Reporter notes:
But this being a movie project that will veer off-center from the traditional Batman canon, sources say the script paints Thomas Wayne as a cheesy and tanned businessman who is more in the mold of a 1980s Donald Trump.
That’s certainly one to go about the character. Though, from the start, everything surrounding this project has been a little off kilter. Sure, this was confirmed partially by the casting of Joaquin Phoenix as the eponymous lead, or Phillips insistence that the film would be gritty and dark. It doesn’t make any of this less strange. While you can see someone wanting to piggyback off Baldwin’s success with his Trump impression (garnering him an Emmy Nomination), the context here still sounds strange. No one seems to have any clue how this film will turn out.
The best way to try and make sense of all this, is through the DC comics prism of an “Elsewords” tale. Those usually consisted of short mini-series who saw popular super heroes in unfamiliar or slightly askew surroundings. Sometimes, they succeed in the form of Super: Red Son, Gotham By Gaslight or Kingdom Come. Other times, they sound more along the lines of Joker.
Seeing as how recent live-action DC films haven’t set the world on fire, it makes sense that they’d want to take a gamble. Specially when the film will only cost a reported $55 million. For those keeping track at home, Aquaman cost $160 million and Justice League $300 million.
Baldwin joins a cast that’s constantly growing. Almost picking people from random, all over the place. Recently Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy and Marc Maron were announced as being part of the project. Which is supposedly still being produced by Martin Scorcese. Do wonders ever cease? However this films shakes out, we’re likely to get more information very soon. Joker starts filming on September 10th.
