Joker is an unusual DC movie for a number of reasons, not least of which being its hard R-rating. And as director Todd Phillips tells The LA Times , it took a great deal of convincing before WB signed off on his vision for the film.

Joker Final Trailer: 44 Gorgeous Cinematic Moments 46 IMAGES

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According to Phillips, he had to spend an entire year making his case for an R-rated Joker movie before studio executives finally signed off on his pitch."It was a year-long process from when we finished the script just to get the new people on board with this vision, because I pitched it to an entirely different team than made it,” Phillips said. “There were emails about: ‘You realize we sell Joker pajamas at Target.’ There were a zillion hurdles, and you just sort of had to navigate those one at a time.... At the time I would curse them in my head every day. But then I have to put it in perspective and go, ‘They’re pretty bold that they did this.’"Fortunately, producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff told The LA Times that work on the film progressed much more smoothly once everyone was on the same page.“There were some hiccups trying to get the green light, and there were some concerns about some of the content,” Koskoff said. “But once we locked and loaded our budget, they really gave us a tremendous amount of space to do what we needed to do. The passion Todd has for this movie is palpable, and when he starts talking about it, he’s hard to say no to. At the end of the day, he got to make the movie he wanted to make.”Joker is set to release in theaters on October 4, 2019. For more on Joker, see 44 cinematic shots from the final trailer , find out where Joaquin Phoenix's "Joker laugh" originated from Joker's theatrical runtime , and why Joker is Rated R

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