Todd Phillips‘ untitled Joker continued to baffle the everloving heck out of me today, announcing [via Variety] that Marc Maron is in talks to join the small-budget DC Comics project. The podcaster and comedian turned GLOW star—who would be appearing alongside Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, and Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker himself—will reportedly play a booking agent on a talk show that plays a part in driving the Clown Prince of Crime insane.

I just…I don’t know! I do not know with this film. Maron’s the man, and even though GLOW uses his character just a tad too much he still owns almost every scene he’s in. I just feel as if the hype for this movie doesn’t gel with the movie itself, if that makes sense. Every bit of casting news screams “a Joker movie with a crazy cast, this is about to be bonkers” while news about the movie itself paints a picture much more low-key, dark, and introspective, almost amusingly so considering its still the story of a man who gets so mad he decides to commit crime in clown make-up. The logline of Phillips and Scott Silver‘s script—which has been compared to Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy—is, “an exploration of a man disregarded by society [that] is not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale.” I think I wrote that same thing freshman year of college when I was still lying about reading Infinite Jest and wearing beanies in the summer.

And, of course, there’s still a Jared Leto-starring Joker project in the works to throw everything all to shit, as Jared Leto’s presence so often does. So, a lot to mull over before Phoenix adopts the Man Who Laughs mantle on October 4, 2019.

via Collider