Joker Producer: It’s “Unlike Any Comic Book Movie You’ve Ever Seen”

Executive producer Michael E. Uslan teases the Joaquin Phoenix-led Joker is “different and unique” and “unlike any comic book movie you’ve ever seen.”

“Todd Phillips is the filmmaker there, and Todd had an incredible vision for this. All I can tell you is, in my humble opinion, the world is getting a little oversaturated with comic book movies and TV everywhere we turn,” the longtime Batman franchise producer said at Germany’s CCXP Cologne convention.

“When I pick up a newspaper and find out that, ‘Oh my goodness, on May 5th, 2027, Ant-Man 5 is gonna open, I better write that down in my calendar,’ the world’s gone a little bit haywire. So not being a great fan in any media of oversaturation, I love when something comes out and it’s different, and it’s unique.”

Uslan, who at CCXP also defended the casting of Robert Pattinson in The Batman and advised detractors to trust in the vision of writer-director Matt Reeves, placed similar trust in Phillips’ vision for his R-rated Batman-less spinoff.

“I thought Guardians of the Galaxy was different and unique when it came out. I thought Deadpool was different and unique when it came out. This Joker movie is different and unique and it’s unlike any comic book movie you’ve ever seen,” Uslan said.

“It’s maybe more like a Martin Scorsese, low-budget film noir crime drama, but I have all the faith in the world in Todd, the brilliantly talented Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro. It’s an incredible, incredible group of people that’s brought this to life.”

Co-star Marc Maron previously described the gritty, Gotham City-set offshoot as an intimate psychological study in the style of famed Alan Moore penned graphic novel The Killing Joke.

“If it’s relative to what I think of Marvel movies then it’s like, ‘Yeah, of course I’m gonna do that’. Oddly, it’s not that kind of movie,” Maron told NME.

“The approach that Todd Phillips has taken is more of an origin story and a character study of a mentally ill person that becomes the Joker. It’s more of an intimate and gritty movie with a very specific scope. It’s going to be really interesting to see how it comes out.”

Warner Bros. releases Joker October 4.