Todd Phillips’ forthcoming Joker movie promises to be unlike any comic book movie fans have ever seen. Part of this claim may come from the movie’s R-Rating -- a rating that, according to Phillips, took a year to get approved by Warner Bros.
“It was a year-long process from when we finished the script just to get the new people on board with this vision, because I pitched it to an entirely different team than made it,” Phillips told LA Times. “There were emails about: ‘You realize we sell Joker pajamas at Target.’ There were a zillion hurdles, and you just sort of had to navigate those one at a time.... At the time, I would curse them in my head every day. But then I have to put it in perspective and go, ‘They’re pretty bold that they did this.’”
Producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff reiterated Phillips’ sentiment, saying, “This is a very gutsy move for Warner Bros., and I commend them. There were some hiccups trying to get the green light, and there were some concerns about some of the content. But once we locked and loaded our budget, they really gave us a tremendous amount of space to do what we needed to do. The passion Todd has for this movie is palpable, and when he starts talking about it, he’s hard to say no to. At the end of the day, he got to make the movie he wanted to make.”
Looks like Phillips got the last laugh with a movie that, according to the Motion Pictures Association of America, features "Strong Bloody Violence, Disturbing Behaviour, Language and Brief Sexual Images."
Directed by Todd Phillips, Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Bill Camp, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Glenn Fleshler, Douglas Hodge, Marc Maron, Josh Pais and Shea Whigham. The film arrives in theaters Oct. 4.