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.

Until then, check out the rest of our coverage of this film including an exclusive interview with Phoenix himself:

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Image via Netflix
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Image via Amazon Studios
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Image via 20th Century Fox