Todd Phillips’ JOKER Had Daily Re-Writes On Set (This Isn’t Necessarily A Bad Thing)

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Aside from recent murmurs that our very own MFR shared a few weeks back, it’s been all quiet regarding Todd Phillips’ upcoming DC film Joker for awhile now. Back in October, we’d heard that Phillips had cast a young Bruce Wayne and Alfred and there was quite a bit of news further back in September including the back-and-forth of casting for Thomas Wayne. Production on the film ended back around November and there’s probably still a bit more waiting left before fans get their first trailer for Joker, but an interesting nugget of news has surfaced!

In an interview with MTV News, lead actress Zazie Beetz revealed that the film’s had an ongoing form of evolution throughout principal production. She stated, “The script was great. We rewrote the whole thing while we were shooting it. Literally, we would go into Todd’s trailer and write the scene for the night and then do it. During hair and makeup we’d memorize those lines and then do them and then we’d reshoot that three weeks later. We had to do everything then because Joaquin had lost so much weight that we couldn’t do reshoots later on so we were figuring it out. But Todd’s quick at getting stuff done so we always had extra time.”

Before any readers here cringe or flinch in fear at the talk of frequent rewrites, I should note that Beetz doesn’t give any indication that the rewrites were a negative part of the production. Rather it was just part of crafting the film, which happens. In fact, one of my favorite films of all time- Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining– also had its script constantly being rewritten on set. This could wind up being a negative for Joker, but in and of itself, this doesn’t seem to be a sign for caution.

Another thing to consider is that our editor-in-chief has been sharing a hunch on social media, for months, that this film is going to be very unconventional. Things he’s heard from the set of the film paint a picture of mystery and misdirection. So this news that the script was ever-evolving fits perfectly with the idea that Phillips, Phoenix, and the rest of his cast and crew are cooking up a very unique, unorthodox experience.

What do you think though? Be sure to comment below!

SOURCE: MTV News, via Twitter