Report: Warner Bros. to Release Joker Origin Movie Produced by Martin Scorsese

Warner Bros.’s DC Comics universe is set to expand once again after reports surfaced on Tuesday the film studio is moving forward with a standalone movie about Batman’s arch-nemesis, the Joker.

According to Deadline:

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“The studio has set The Hangover‘s Todd Phillips to co-write a script with 8 Mile scribe Scott Silver. Phillips will direct the movie, and Martin Scorsese will produce it with Phillips. This will be the first film under a new banner that has yet to be named in which WB can expand the canon of DC properties and create unique storylines with different actors playing the iconic characters.”

Deadline further enumerates that this Joker standalone will be separate from “any other iteration” of the classic villain, meaning it will not be an origin story for the most recent Joker to hit the big screen, Jared Leto’s Joker that appeared in the comically bad Suicide Squad. According to the report, this story will not feel like any of the current DC movies (probably a good thing) and will feel more like a Scorsese crime drama set in the 1980s, a la Taxi Driver or Raging Bull.

Phillips most recent project behind the camera was the well-received War Dogs, and Silver cowrote the screenplay for Oscar-winning The Fighter, starring Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale.

Before Leto, the villain has hit the big screen twice in memorable roles, first played by Jack Nicholson and more recently by Heath Ledger in an Oscar-winning performance.

No release date has been announced for the new Joker standalone film.