‘Joker’ producer says movies ‘shake people up,’ spark discussion: ‘You can’t censor that’

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Joaquin Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck, a clown-for-hire and stand-up comic in ‘Joker.’
WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Michael Uslan is ready to help change the world again.

The longtime producer of the “Batman” film franchise was there when director Tim Burton crafted the Caped Crusader’s game-changing 1989 film, a stylized gothic adventure that helped shape our modern superhero-focused cinema landscape.

Nearly 20 years later, Uslan worked with writer/director Christopher Nolan on his acclaimed trilogy reimagining the world of Batman for a post-9/11 world, including the near universally hailed 2008 urban crime epic “The Dark Knight.”

Uslan is shaking things up again as executive producer of “Joker” (in theaters Oct. 4). The film promises a gritty origin story for Gotham City’s clown prince of crime, with Joaquin Phoenix in the title role.

“Three times we have completely reinvented how comic book movies are made and perceived,” Uslan says. “If we had done it once in ’89, it would have been enough. And then as things went off track and powers-that-be got so enamored with toys and games and Happy Meals that everything went off the side rails, to be able to say, ‘OK, we brought it back even better and different and better than ever,’ that would have been enough. And now this.”

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has already garnered plenty of attention. Earlier this month, it took home the top prize at the 76th Venice International Film Festival, the Golden Lion Award. Previous Golden Lion winners, including Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” (2017), have gone on to win best picture at the Academy Awards.

However, not all of the pre-release discussion has been positive. Seven years after 12 people were killed in a mass shooting at a 2012 screening of Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Colorado, family members of several victims sent an open letter to Warner Bros. expressing concern about “Joker.”

Those who signed the letter say they were given pause that the movie seemingly “presents the character as a protagonist with a sympathetic origin story.”

The letter didn’t demand that Warner pull “Joker” from theaters, but asked that the studio “end political contributions to candidates who take money from the NRA and vote against gun reform” and “actively lobby for gun reform.”

Warner Bros. responded with a statement noting that neither Phillips’ film nor Phoenix’s character endorse real-world violence.

“It is not the intention of the film, the filmmakers or the studio to hold this character up as a hero,” the studio told Variety in a statement.

What would Uslan say to audience members apprehensive over the prospect of a film looking to paint an empathetic portrait of a sociopathic killer in this modern, fear-filled age?

“I would almost turn that question over to the teachers of film around the world, to the academicians, as to what is the role of cinema, thematically (and with regard to) responsibility?” says Uslan. “Look at what I consider some of the most important films: What have they done? They’ve held up a mirror to our society, and there are times when people don’t want to see that reflection, they want to run from it. They don’t want to acknowledge it because sometimes the reflection shows warts and all, whether it’s biases and prejudices or what’s happened to our society, reflecting the times.”

Uslan also cites provocative works of 1970s cinema that he described as “Joker” antecedents such as Scorsese’s “Mean Streets” (1973), Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” (1971) and Richard Attenborough’s “Magic” (1978).

“If anything, I believe movies can shake people up and bring issues to attention, whether it’s about guns or the need to treat mental illness or the need for civility and for us to start talking with each other instead of at each other again,” he says. “You can’t suppress that, you can’t censor that.”

“Joker” director Todd Phillip, the man behind the wildly successful “Hangover” trilogy of R-rated comedies, is already an Academy Award nominee for his work on the “Borat” screenplay.

“To elect to tackle the Joker in any way, shape or form when you’re following in the footsteps of (previous Joker actors) Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, Mark Hamill, that’s unbelievable,” says Uslan. “And that requires a clarity of vision. That also requires something else: It requires passion. It requires knowledge, love for a character, understanding of a character even if you’re willing to go down different doors with him.”

Contributing: Bryan Alexander and Andrea Mandell, USA TODAY

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