The Joker: Could Robert De Niro Join Exciting Origin Movie

Though Martin Scorsese's involvement with the forthcoming Joker Origin movie has seemingly gone all quiet, it seems one of his most frequent collaborators might be in line to appear in it.

According to That Hashtag Show the Taxi Driver legend is being considered for the supporting role of Murray Franklin, whose character description isn't exactly full of useful information:

"Male (65-75) Caucasian."

Very profound.

THS also passed on the character descriptions that they were apparently handed by their source, all of whom appear to have been invented entirely for the film (assuming they aren't placeholder names to throw us all off?):

Penny: Supporting female (60-74), Caucasian. Lower class, very attractive in her younger days, still feels that way about herself. But recently her health has started failing, and she's nearly bedridden in her Lower East Side apartment which she shares with her grown son who just moved back home. She's obsessed with her former employer and can't believe that this is what her life has come to, that she has ended up here, like this.

Sophie Dumond: Supporting female (27-34), to play African American or to play Latina. Not beautiful, has a hardness to her, a single mother living on the Lower East Side, doing the best she can, trying to make ends meet; worn out by the grind of the city. She understands how the system is stacked against her and the people in her community, how unjust it all is for them. She's just trying to catch a break.

Randall: Supporting male (40-59), Caucasian. Thinks he's the wisest and most knowledgeable person in any room he's in, tries to present himself as a mentor to everybody, but is really just looking out for himself, burly.

Gary: Supporting male (30-49), any ethnicity to play a dwarf. Randall's best friend, he's good-natured and a buddy to his colleagues at work, one of the only decent people in the whole movie.

Hoyt Vaughn: Supporting male (50-69), any ethnicity. The old-school manager of hotel staff. He's seen it all, and finds it difficult to give a s**t about much of anything anymore.

Detective Garrity: Supporting male (50-59), any ethnicity. Police Detective in a city on the brink; a by-the-book cop, worn down by all his years on the force. He doesn't care about or take into consideration any of the societal or political ramifications of his cases.

Detective Burke: Supporting male (30-39), any ethnicity. A Police Detective and Garrity's partner; he's an !*$%, who gets off by being in a position of authority. Being a cop is how he defines himself.

That all reads like your typical crime noir with hard-nosed, street-smart characters and villainous caricatures (particularly the cops), and it definitely fits the billing that the film has so far come with.

The only worry here is that they're going to demystify the Joker too much by making him the nicest guy in this garbage world, which would be the wrong approach. Obviously, there is some appeal to the idea that he could be any man who had a single very bad day, but he still has to be the most interesting character in his world, even before he becomes the Joker.

Let's hope Todd Phillips can cut the right balance.

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