As soon as Joaquin Phoenix was picked to play the iconic role of the Joker, the Heath Ledger comparisons began.

The PR for Joker has been very well done, with dribs and drabs being released in the build-up, culminating in the trailer from April that cracked 10 million views in a single day.

On October 4, it hits big screens in the US, and the buzz around the Todd Phillips-directed movie continues to grow with the release of the final trailer yesterday.

That has, at the time of writing, more than 5,5 million views, and comes with this write-up:

Director Todd Phillips “Joker” centers around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone fictional story not seen before on the big screen. Phillips’ exploration of Arthur Fleck, who is indelibly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, is of a man struggling to find his way in Gotham’s fractured society.

A clown-for-hire by day, he aspires to be a stand-up comic at night…but finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes one bad decision that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events in this gritty character study.

From what we’ve seen already, and the trailer below, Joaquin looks to have embraced the role wholeheartedly:

Yes – I will be watching that.

Joker also stars Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, and Marc Maron, among others.

Again, you’ll have to wait until October 4, but it could well be worth it.

[source:youtube]