Warner Brothers are continuing their “throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks” plan of making DC comics movies by officially moving forward on one of the two Joker movies they have in development. No, really.

According to [The Hollywood Reporter](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/joaquin-phoenixs-joker-origin-movie-officially-a-go-1126127) Joaquin Phoenix has officially signed his deal to star in the Todd Phillips directed film, and the thing is set to start filming in September.

Look, I don’t exactly know what to make of this. They are saying that this film is meant to be different, and have a “darker, more experimental” tone and be “not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale” and, like, sure, I guess? I don’t know how they get darker than the movies they’ve already made without going for an R rating, but then again Todd Phillips (of **The Hangover** and **War Dogs**) is directing so maybe that’s the plan. If they’re really telling an origin story for the character it would need to be suitably messed up.

I dunno guys. There’s no release date yet but we might see this as early as winter 2019 so I guess we’ll find out then.