(Photo: Getty Images, Mike Coppola)

Sometimes, news stories come along that just make you question the sanity of the entire world, and all you can do in the face of such madness is dye your hair green, put on a purple suit, and laugh. Here is one such story: According to Deadline, Martin Scorsese of all people is set to produce an origin story about legendary Batman villain the Joker, with The Hangover’s Todd Phillips co-writing the script with 8 Mile’s Scott Silver.


Deadline says that this will be a wholly Joker-centric origin story that “isn’t part of any other iteration,” which presumably means that this is not the origin for Jared Leto’s Joker from Suicide Squad or any other cinematic Jokers. That means that this will apparently be disconnected from DC’s cinematic universe, which also means that Batman himself probably won’t be in it. The studio is reportedly looking for someone new (and possibly younger) to star as the Joker.

Also, the movie will somehow be a “gritty and grounded hard-boiled crime film” that takes place in the ‘80s and just happens to be about a criminal who dresses like a clown. Apparently, the goal is make it feel less like “a DC movie” and more like a retro Scorsese movie in the vein of Taxi Driver or Raging Bull, but—again—with a criminal who dresses like a clown.