After seemingly endless rumors, Todd Phillips has confirmed that he did indeed pitch Joker as the first in a new label called DC Black. And as other rumors have confirmed, Warner Bros. was a bit hesitant at calling it a label.
There has been talk for some time now that Joker would be the first in a new, separate, DC series called DC Black. The idea, supposedly, was for these films to be by different filmmakers presenting different takes on various villains from the DC universe.
Speaking with Deadline recently, Phillips confirmed this is exactly what he pictured. “I went to Warners because I knew that there would be concerns about, how do you separate it from the movies that they were making? I knew they were going to go, ‘We’re going to confuse the audience if you have this Joker out there in these movies, and then you’re doing this whole other thing.’ So my pitch to them was actually to start a label, which was a little aggressive, I’ll admit, in hindsight.”
We would have to agree that it may have been a bit overly ambitious, but seeing as Joker has now grossed over a billion dollars, we’re sure this concept is being looked at again.
Phillips went on to add, “I said, ‘This will be the first movie, and then we’ll get this director to do that, and this director to do this, and we’ll call it DC Black, and Joker will be the first film. In a weird way, it gives you two bites of the apple, of these characters. You can do these kind of down-and-dirty character studies over here, and still do the DC Universe over there. To which they said, ‘Okay, calm down, you’re not starting a label here at Warners, but this is interesting. Go write this and tell us what you’re thinking.’”
The question now is what other villains could be tackled. There are more than enough in DC lore, but can any of them carry a movie the same way the Joker has? Something tells us we’re going to find out in the not too distant future.
SOURCE: Deadline
