Joaquin Phoenix in talks to play the Joker in Todd Phillips' DC Origin standalone film

Warner Bros has been gearing up for a Joker origin movie — independent of the existing DC Batman universe where Jared Leto has already been introduced as the new Joker in Suicide Squad — for a while now. [caption id=“attachment_4343375” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Joaquin Phoenix and The Joker. Images from Twitter.[/caption] The latest speculation is that the upcoming untitled Todd Phillips directorial (under a new DC Comics banner) is looking to cast Joaquin Phoenix in the role of the iconic villain. The movie falls under a yet-to-be-announced new banner of DC Comics, which would give the studio the opportunity to expand the canon of the iconic comic-book characters with unique story angles that aren’t included in its current cinematic universe. Jared Leto will reportedly continue to play the Joker in the upcoming Suicide Sqaud 2. It was previously reported that Leonardo DiCaprio was also approached to star in the standalone Joker movie, however Phoenix is apparently the top choice for the part, and after thinking it over, the actor has said yes to the role, according to Variety. Leto reportedly found it hard to follow up the iconic, critically acclaimed performance by Heath Ledger as the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Leto reportedly felt let down by the studio’s final cut and blamed his limited screen time for the mixed response to his performance. “I think that I brought so much to the table in every scene that it was probably more about filtering all of the insanity, because I wanted to give a lot of options, and I think there’s probably enough footage in this film for a Joker movie,” Leto explained in an earlier interview. Studio insiders are reportedly stressing that Leto is still on board as the Joker in the current DC universe and Phoenix’s project will have no bearing on Leto’s character in subsequent movies. (With inputs from IANS)