‘The Joker’ Director Is Not Happy With the Paparazzi Response

It must be frustrating for a filmmaker to have a unique take on an iconic property, be excited to present this refreshing idea for the masses, only to have their vision be spoiled by the paparazzi. 

The Joker director Todd Phillips is currently dealing with that as he shoots the Batman spinoff movie in New York City, surrounded by photographers who have posted tons of pictures and videos of the film already.

Phillips recently posted a photo of Zazie Beetz’s role in the film, providing the first official look at her character in The Joker. Someone commented on the photo that they’ve already seen too much of the upcoming movie, prompting the director to respond with frustration of the paparazzi’s presence at his set.

“Here’s the issue. We have paparazzi all over our set, at every turn,” Phillips wrote on Instagram. “And it bums me out that they constantly put out their bad shots. So I figure, may as well put out some good ones.”

The director has a very fair criticism, as it seems like everyone (including us) is devouring any and all information about the upcoming movie.

After the test footage revealed Joaquin Phoenix‘s drastically different take on the Joker, production kicked into to full swing in New York and now we have a much better idea of what’s in store.

A new set video showed Phoenix in a costume similar to the classic appearance of Cesar Romero in the 1966 Batman series. His face paint is like the traditional clown garb we’ve already seen in the set videos, but he has the iconic green hair. All in all, it looks much more like Heath Ledger’s take in The Dark Knight compared to anything we’ve seen since.

Fans have wondered why Warner Bros. decided to make a Joker spinoff movie, or why Phoenix would sign on to make this film. But the actor explained his reasons in a recent interview with Collider.

“I think, underneath the excitement of these films, and the size of them, there are these incredible characters that are dealing with real life struggles,” Phoenix said. “And sometimes that is uncovered and exposed, and sometimes it isn’t, and so I always felt, like, there were characters in comics that were really interesting and deserve the opportunity to be kind of studied. And so I think that’s what Todd sees appealing about this idea.”

The Joker is scheduled to premiere in theaters on October 4, 2019.