The Sherminator!!
Anyone? Ok, just kidding. He’s got the look, though. Can anyone go one better?
Without mentioning Sean Penn or Crispin Glover?
To tell the truth, I thought Jack Nicholson, when I first heard of it, was the ideal choic. He had played insane character, and his face was the ideal shape for somew artists versions of The Joker. Certainly better than Cesar Romero (especially since he wouldn’t shave off that moustache, and insited n coverin it with greasepaint).
This guy would look OK for that “absurdly long and thin” version of the Joker, though. Don’t know anything bout his acting or personality, though.
Hey, looking at his IMDB page, I have learned that they’ve already made American Pie 4: Band Camp, which may or may not be being released straight to video. Ah, the age we live in.
Read today that Paul Bettany is one of the front-runners. Seems like a solid choice.
I said it before, I’ll say it again: Michael Jackson is the Joker.
Cillian Murphy
Oh, yeah… right. Well, he could be the Scarejocrow. Imagine the possibilities!
Mark Hamil. Seriously. He’d be perfect.
There’s two reasons why, too. Points to people who know 'em!
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Mark Hamill provided the voice of the Joker in the animated series.
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He once contaminated the North Atlantic with a toxin that mutated all sea life into hideous, grinning “Hamill Fish.”
I wish they would have saved Cillian Murphy for the joker.
Tim Curry can do just about anything I wouldn’t mind seeing him give it a go.
I really, really, really want to see Vince McMahon play Mysterio in a Spiderman movie. He’s got the voice and he’s got the body. Put a fishbowl on his head and he’s perfect!
I think Mark Hamill’s a great guy, and has been doing some great voice work, and I’d love to see him get some decent work on the big screen again.
…but not as the Joker. I don’t have a lot of confidence that he’s physically up to performing such an (sorry) animated character. I mean the physical acting. Maybe he’s got what it takes to pull it off, and by all means he should have the opportunity to test for it – but if I had to cast it blind, I’d choose someone that I knew had what it takes.
You know who I’d like to see try it on? Jude Law.
He has approximately the right sort of face, and a tiny bit of prosthetic make-up would go a long way. More importantly, he has the range. Jude Law doing a bone-chilling manic would be fantastic – he can put something terrifying into his eyes that I’m not sure Mark could.
His physical chops are the selling point for me, though – no, not his hot bod – the way he acts with his body. Unparalleled. That’s something that goes a long way towards realizing a comic-book character. He would make the Joker the larger-than-life, unnatural freak that he needs to be. Guaranteed.
No. No.
They need to STOP casting pretty-boys as villains. The intimidation factor totally disappears. Cilian Murphy’s scarecrow was not at all menacing. Neither would be a Joker played by Jude Law.
I think Brent Spiner would make a decent Joker.
David Bowie has been my casting choice for Joker ever since I read Dark Knight Returns. But I wouldn’t mind seeing Crispin Glover, Tim Roth, Edward Norton, or Mark Hamill either. NOT Sean Penn, no way.
I would say you’re right about the look. He looks just like the Joker in flashbacks during “The Killing Joke.”
The second part of the Mark Hamil thing is, apparently, he’s a very physical voice actor. And there’s film of him doing the Joker, and he’s… well, he’s the freaking Joker. Seriously. Worth finding if you can hunt it down.
Oh, come now. The Joker? Jim Carrey.
The best suggestion I had heard, from somewhere on IMDB I think, was Adrien Brody, with the voice dubbed by Mark Hamill. But now that I’m reading some of these ideas, people I never considered for some reason, like Brent Spiner or Edward Norton … damn, but Ed Norton would make a good joker. As for Jim Carrey, well, based on his performance as the Riddler in Batman Forever, I’d say he is over the top, as the Joker should be, but in the wrong sort of way. If that makes any sense.
Actually, I think Cesar Romero gets a bum rap for his portrayal of The Joker. At the time the TV series was produced, The Joker was basically just a silly character with a penchant for goofily themed crimes. He had been so for decades. Romero’s performance is consistent with how the readers knew the character at the time. It wasn’t 'til the 70’s that Denny O’Neil (I think) returned The Joker to his roots as a really, really scary psychopath with some advanced knowledge of poisons.
As for actors portraying him now, I think John Malkovich would be an excellent choice to portray The Joker as he was in his first couple stories: scary, sometimes somber, sometimes manic, and not as physically grotesque (save coloration) as he was later drawn.
I can see that. Gary Oldman would also be a great Joker (he’s always good in everything), but he’s already cast as a great Commissioner Gordon. With the exception of Tim Curry, I’d rather see a dramatic actor ham it up as a freaky, menacing Joker than have a comic actor (Carrey, Myers, Williams) turn the character into a (ahem) joke.