We are a few weeks away before the festival season commences. With the start of the festival seasons comes the beginning the awards season. One of the biggest surprises thus far to be announced for the festivals is Joker. Joker is set to hit both Venice and TIFF.
TIFF Artistic Director Cameron Bailey has built up a little more buzz for Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, along with Michael B. Jordan’s Just Mercy and Renee Zellweger as Judy by speaking with the Toronto Sun. The glowing words from Bailey has increased buzz for the upcoming film. Bailey stated,
“First of all it’s terrific. So it should play on our largest stage. But it’s a really original take on comic book movies and on the Joker character in particular. It’s not based on an existing story, it has one of the greatest actors in modern cinema, Joaquin Phoenix, in the lead, and Robert De Niro is in it as well, one of the best actors that has ever lived. But it has an interesting tone and approach to it. It’s set in the late ’70s, early ’80s and it feels like it was made then. It’s gritty in its look. It has references to Martin Scorsese’s filmmaking and it feels like a cinematic achievement on a high level. Although it’s working with very populist material, it has great ambition. That’s why it’s a Gala.”
We’ve now had Venice head Alberto Barbera and the TIFF head defending their decision to have a DC comic book movie in their respective fests:
