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New Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix gets release date

The DC Comics villain gets his own gritty origin story from Warner Bros. that will hit theaters in October of next year.

Bonnie Burton
Journalist Bonnie Burton writes about movies, TV shows, comics, science and robots. She is the author of the books Live or Die: Survival Hacks, Wizarding World: Movie Magic Amazing Artifacts, The Star Wars Craft Book, Girls Against Girls, Draw Star Wars, Planets in Peril and more! E-mail Bonnie.
Bonnie Burton

The Joker is the kind of complex comic book character who never seems to get old with fans. Now it seems actor Joaquin Phoenix is going to try his hand at playing the DC Comics psychopath with a sick sense of humor in a new origin-story movie green-lit by Warner Bros. 

The studio describes the upcoming movie titled Joker as an "exploration of a man disregarded by society [that] is not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale," The Hollywood Reporter reported July 10.  

Directed and co-written by Todd Phillips, with Scott Silver serving as the other script writer, the movie is working with a roughly $55 million budget. It will start shooting this September and is due to hit theaters worldwide on Oct. 4, 2019.

Ironically, Warner Bros also has yet another Joker movie in the works, starring actor Jared Leto, who recently portrayed the Joker in Suicide Squad. There's no official release date for Leto's Joker film yet. 

First published July 10. 
Update, July 18, 1:15 p.m. PT: Adds movie title and release date. 

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