Leonardo DiCaprio As The Joker? We Have a Lot of Thoughts

With the news that Martin Scorsese is producing the upcoming Joker movie comes speculation that Warner Bros wants to bring in his favorite leading man, Leonardo DiCaprio .

According to The Hollywood Reporter, sources say Warners want Leo to up the spinoff's prestige factor. (But if they want a prestige film, why hire "The Hangover'"s Todd Phillips to direct?)

Need we point out: This is supposed to be an origin story and DiCaprio turns 43 this year. Heath Ledger, who posthumously won an Oscar for his career-defining portrayal of the villain in "The Dark Knight," was only 28.

DiCaprio's closer in age to the last guy who played the Joker, 45-year-old Jared Leto. Leto, by the way, is said to be very unhappy about the standalone Joker film, even though he's getting his own movie with Harley Quinn.

The plan to hire Leo could work if, according to "sources," he'd be playing a Scorsese-esque crime boss more like Jack Nicholson in "The Departed," which would be an interesting handing-off-of-the-torch from one Joker to another.

That would presumably still leave room for a younger actor to play the Joker in flashbacks.

Reps for Warner Bros, DiCaprio, Leto and Scorsese declined to comment on THR's story.

If we never get a DiCaprio Joker (at this point, we're not holding our breath), we'll always have his deliciously over-the-top turn as villain Calvin Candie in "Django Unchained."

DiCaprio and Scorsese are set to reteam next on the period crime drama "Killers of the Flower Moon."

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