The Joker origin film starring Joaquin Phoenix as the Clown Prince of Crime is looking more and more interesting by the day, for both positive and negative reasons. Preproduction appears to be underway on the film, with director Todd Phillips rounding out his team in hopes of hitting a September production date, but that’s not exactly the most interesting part.

That Hashtag Show is gotten a hold of eight character descriptions, and none of them really feel like anything from the comic book source material. This would seem to imply that the film will be taking the basic idea of the Joker and creating a whole new, film-only mythology behind Gotham’s craziest villain.

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One big noteworthy character is named Murray Franklin, as director Todd Phillips and producer Martin Scorsese are eyeing Robert De Niro for the role. Though there are no details for the character, it’s being billed as a strong supporting role.

In addition to Murray Franklin, they are also looking for a 60-74 year-old actress to play Penny (Joker’s mother?), a 27-35 year-old African American or Latina named Sophie Dumond (single mother just trying to catch a break…love interest?), a 40-59 year-old Caucasian named Randall (deceptive mentor-type), a 30-49 year-old dwarf named Gary, a 50-69 year-old man to play a hotel manager, and finally, two detectives, one jaded older cop named Detective Garrity, and a power-hungry younger cop named Detective Burke.

While I find all these ideas really cool, it does sound like quite the departure from the stories in the comics — a bit too in-the-weeds. Part of what makes the character of the Joker interesting is his enigmatic nature. Hopefully, that won’t be lost here.

What do you think of these details? Sound off down below!

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SOURCE: THS