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Thought of a GREAT idea for a movie...(about The Joker). Hear me out pls

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Please hear me out I'm not trolling...i'll bulletpoint it because people seem to read bulletpoints and it's easier to type for me. This will be the best thread i've ever created in 6 years here. I'm not high.

  • The movie would be titled simply The Joker
  • It would be Rated R with a serious tone, not Deadpool Rated R
  • Starring a great actor (Jared LEto is great and won an Oscar so he would be fine).
  • The movie would be an origin movie.
  • It would start with Joker's childhood and detail how awful it was. Examples of this could be- abusive relationship with his parents... maybe he gets beat? maybe he gets molested (could be too much for a comic movie)? Family would definitely be poor and have no money. Joker was also picked on by other kids
  • I was gona say perhaps his parents were murdered and justice was never served but then remembered that's how Batman started lmao so let's stick with the abuse aspect. Plus it fits the character better
  • The city of Gotham's social services and government never helped the child despite workers coming to visit. They ignored it despite clear as day abuse. This needs to be fleshed out as it will be key motivation for his actions in the future
  • First third of the movie would be the previous bullet points and obv have a good child actor (the kid from Looper?)
  • Joker is now in his 20s, does drugs, a loner, emotionally scarred from his tragic and abusive childhood. He has mental disorders...bipolar, schizophrenia. The actor (Leto with young makeup?) would have incredible scenes showing how his psychosis is eating him from the inside.
  • Commits petty crimes, has a long arrest record. Despite these things he's quiet and reserved criminal. People think he's 'off' but not crazy. The psychosis is building up inside him.
  • I'm having trouble thinking of what other traumatic events to put in this phase so feel free to add to it.
  • Just thought of one. Joker is in the middle of committing crime, the stakes are higher and it's an armed robbery, but things get out of hand. Theres a scuffle with the store owner he's robbing and the owner manages to lift up Joker's ski mask for a second and saw his face.
  • Joker hesitates on what to do. He decides to leave the store. As he opens the door he opens it half way then slowly turns his head back to the owner. Walks toward the owner and SNAPS...he gets a blunt object from the aisle (help me out comic guys, has he used anything in the comics?). For sake of continuing the story let's say its a hammer.
  • Joker has snapped and strikes the owner across the skull immediately knocking him out and then proceeds to beat his face into a bloody pulp. We see lots of blood splatter and its VERY gory. Think
    Negan scene
    from The Walking Dead. Joker's first kill
  • Joker has now officially off the deep end and has embraced his madness. He starts wearing eccentric colorful clothes but no makeup yet.
  • Joker creates a gang and the crimes get worse and worse
  • Finally Joker has enough power to really cause havoc in Gotham and get revenge on the corrupt govt officials and city council that didnt help him as a child
  • Needs fleshing out from here to end but I have an ending scene in mind.
  • The very end scene is the following...Joker is looking into his bathroom mirror. Pounding orchestra music is playing. Leto's subtle acting is GODLY oscar worthy. He's staring into the mirror with odd psychotic twitches and is on edge. He gets white paint and paints his face white. He gets hair dye and dyes his hair green. And the very final thing he does...and remember we're seeing his face direct from the front from the mirror. The final thing he does is...WAIT FOR IT...gets a knife and slowly carves the smile from end to end into his face. Blood is streaming down. Joker barely flinches from the carving. The camera stays on him for 10 seconds with Dark Knight type music (but darker) still playing straight on and then cuts to black. The end. The Joker is born.
 
Sweet fanfiction!

Seriously though, you've obviously put a lot of thought into it, but I think an origin story kind of flies in the face of what the Joker is. He's supposed to be an almost supernatural force of chaos. Giving the Joker an origin lessens that.
 
I don't think alot of fans would jive with that movie (at least the first half) because the most interesting think about the Joker and his mania is that he has no backstory nor justification for why he is the way he is.
 
Also, you totally left out any Red Hood sequence! I don't want a Joker origin story, but it'd kind of have to include that.
 
I don't think alot of fans would jive with that movie (at least the first half) because the most interesting think about the Joker and his mania is that he has no backstory nor justification for why he is the way he is.
The only reason the Joker is good is that he doesn't have a backstory.
Hmm...didn't really know that. :-/ Oh well.

Why do we want this?
Because the movie wouldnt be satisfying to the casual masses without that aspect. But maybe you could omit it and it would still be good (like EdibleKnife just mentioned below me)
 
Key aspect is despite being a brutal villain people will sort of root for Joker and feel bad for him

I honestly think it's possible to do that even when the Joker is actually established as one of Batman's rogues. The character is charismatic enough that if you made a movie from his perspective with Bats as the "villain", you could still develop audience sympathy without an ounce of backstory or flashbacks
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
OP you made the same mistake that Rob Zombie did with his Halloween remake. The background and origins of the Joker, much like Michael Myers, isn't really important to the character of the Joker. Not saying it wasn't a big deal to his character or what but the Joker as an entity in most forms of media he appears in has become something far larger than the culmination of his history and background events. He is the clown prince of crime and a pure agent of chaos, whether he was a spoiled rich kid given everything he wanted or a kid who grew up under abusive hobos is almost not really important in the scheme and things and what the focus of most stories about him are on.

You aren't supposed to "care" about the character or feel for him and its almost antithetical to power and charisma of the character, much the same as Michael Myers in the Rob Zombie Halloween movie. He, like the Joker, is supposed to be a force of nature that shows up like a raging hurricane before moving on, above and beyond your normal human concerns, fears, etc. Trying to make him a "human" character often misses the point.
 
OP that description is awful but don't worry it's still up to par with most Hollywood movies so you can still make it, just believe in yourself.
 

LakeEarth

Member
OP you made the same mistake that Rob Zombie did with his Halloween remake. The background and origins of the Joker, much like Michael Myers, isn't really important to the character of the Joker. Not saying it wasn't a big deal to his character or what but the Joker as an entity in most forms of media he appears in has become something far larger than the culmination of his history and background events. He is the clown prince of crime and a pure agent of chaos, whether he was a spoiled rich kid given everything he wanted or a kid who grew up under abusive hobos is almost not really important in the scheme and things and what the focus of most stories about him are on.

You aren't supposed to "care" about the character or feel for him and its almost antithetical to him much the same as Michael Myers in the Rob Zombie Halloween movie. He, like the Joker, is supposed to be a force of nature that shows up like a raging hurricane before moving on, above and beyond your normal human concerns, fears, etc. Trying to make him a "human" character often misses the point.

Yup, John Carpenter once said that he wanted no one in the audience to be able to relate the Michael Myers. Rob Zombie completely missed this comment, apparently.
 
OP you made the same mistake that Rob Zombie did with his Halloween remake. The background and origins of the Joker, much like Michael Myers, isn't really important to the character of the Joker. Not saying it wasn't a big deal to his character or what but the Joker as an entity in most forms of media he appears in has become something far larger than the culmination of his history and background events. He is the clown prince of crime and a pure agent of chaos, whether he was a spoiled rich kid given everything he wanted or a kid who grew up under abusive hobos is almost not really important in the scheme and things and what the focus of most stories about him are on.

You aren't supposed to "care" about the character or feel for him and its almost antithetical to him much the same as Michael Myers in the Rob Zombie Halloween movie. He, like the Joker, is supposed to be a force of nature that shows up like a raging hurricane before moving on, above and beyond your normal human concerns, fears, etc. Trying to make him a "human" character often misses the point.
You make a lot of sense and are ultimately right. Just had some free time and thought it would be fun to think about
 
The only reason the Joker is good is that he doesn't have a backstory.

Didn't a failed comedian fall into a puddle of chemicals while wearing a red hood costume in a botched robbery that happened after he found out his wife and unborn child died? The trauma of which drove him insane and left him horribly disfigured.
 
I like the Joker's back story being vague and unknown. That origin playfulness was a brilliant script decision in The Dark Knight. It makes the Joker less of a guy your punching and more of an enigma, a force.

I hope future movies keep that.
 

The Adder

Banned
The most interesting way, I think, to do a film about Joker's backstory is to make a film where none of the pieces line up, plotholes abound, the movie seems to forget things it said earlier or add things it never did. And then end it with Joker on the doctor's couch wrapping up the drawn out sob story he'd been giving Harley.
 

Kurdel

Banned
Nope, I rather have the Joker origin be boring normal life and have him snap, because that means anyone can become him.
 
Didn't a failed comedian fall into a puddle of chemicals while wearing a red hood costume in a botched robbery that happened after he found out his wife and unborn child died?

This is the only canon part of the Joker's backstory, who was in the red hood is unknown. The rest of what you wrote is portrayed in The Killing Joke, but at the end of the story the Joker says that it's just how he remembers it today. For him, it's a different story everyday, or something to that effect.
 

The Adder

Banned
This is the only canon part of the Joker's backstory, who was in the red hood is unknown. The rest of what you wrote is portrayed in The Killing Joke, but at the end of the story the Joker says that it's just how he remembers it today. For him, it's a different story everyday, or something to that effect.

"If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice."
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
and we already got some backstory in Mask of The Phantasm

I actually liked this as it wasn't some huge revelation about the Joker's background or his character before coming an insane clown super villain. It related directly to the story in the movie but gave us just an inkling of his background.
 

DeathoftheEndless

Crashing this plane... with no survivors!
OP you made the same mistake that Rob Zombie did with his Halloween remake.

We had the same train of thought.

giphy.gif
 

SpaceWolf

Banned
This is the only canon part of the Joker's backstory, who was in the red hood is unknown. The rest of what you wrote is portrayed in The Killing Joke, but at the end of the story the Joker says that it's just how he remembers it today. For him, it's a different story everyday, or something to that effect.

996830-1.jpg
 

zeemumu

Member
Not big on delving into Joker's past. His backstory in Killing Joke only detailed the last few days of his civilian life.
 

Karkador

Banned
There should be a scene where he's checking in at an airport, or ordering coffee somewhere, or at the library checking out a book (the Anarchist's Cookbook) and the person attending him hands him his stuff and says "you should use your full name, I like that name. 'Joker'" - what will really sell it is Jared Leto's incredible, red-text worthy acting as the library clerk and John Joker aka The Joker
 
Yup, John Carpenter once said that he wanted no one in the audience to be able to relate the Michael Myers. Rob Zombie completely missed this comment, apparently.

"completely missed this comment" lol.
Carpenter made his movie. Who gives a crap what he said when remaking that movie 30 years later?

But, yeah, OP, that did sound like the Halloween remake and it seems like the surprise ending would be spoiled upon announcing that the movie is being made.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
"completely missed this comment" lol.
Carpenter made his movie. Who gives a crap what he said when remaking that movie 30 years later?

But, yeah, OP, that did sound like the Halloween remake and it seems like the surprise ending would be spoiled upon announcing that the movie is being made.

Its John Carpenter, dude has made more classics in a variety of genres than Zombie has dropped albums. His music is better too ;D
 
I'd actually be completely down for this movie as long as the Joker constantly asks questions about God and suffering and the film has at least one scene where he's meant to resemble Christ on the cross.
 
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