The Joker Of 1989

Oh, yeah. Liotta regrets turning down the role of Batman.

AHA!!!!!!!! Gary Busey!!!!!!

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He more than likely could pull it off. Did I mention that Mom confuses him with Nick Nolte?

Lol! Nick Nolte Joker would just be, gruff




I reckon Busey as Joker in the 1989 movie would have been a powerhouse performance.
Busey today isn't all there, he's gone proper doolally... but in 89 he was at least sane enough to do his insane thing.
It'd be like watching his more comedic elements in Under Siege: "Do I look like I need a psychological evaluation?"


(contains some swearing)

Interestingly, all these guys would have been in the same age range as Nicholson in '89...

Age in 1989

Perkins = 57
Dern = 53
Nicholson = 52
McDowell = 46

Gruff Joker would have people walking out of the theater.

i think jack nicholson's the joker down right brilliant, with his witty lines, funny sarcastic lines, and how he portrayed the role was just great, i like jack nicholson myself, he was a great actor,by the way, i was thinking about watching Chinatown again.

you remind me of how much i like gary busey as the bad guy, he is just a brilliant bad in any movie...

in fact gary busey was a good guy in only one film, and that was 1991's pointbreak, and he was brilliant, shame he had to ***....

I only found out about that a few years ago but he would have been perfect wouldn't he? I think it's that the studio needed a bigger name, but obviously Bob Kane had mentioned Jack Nicholson years earlier as being a good option.

Totally agree with you Rodent about the Heath Ledger similarities. Dourif even had that thin, gangly shape and his hair was often long as well. And he can do a crazy laugh like nobody's business .

The thought's crossed my mind a few times over the years.

Oh yeah, he was great in that.

Brad Dourif, Tim Curry, David Bowie, John Lithgow and James Woods were all considered for the Joker

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Letterboxd

David Bowie was considered for everything .

James Woods I can see working, but it's Brad all the way for me.

When I read Dark Knight Returns and A Death in the Family I always pictured Jeremy Irons or Michael Caine would have been great Jokers

Irons I can picture – I was just thinking of him as the Über-Morlock in The Time Machine with that white skin.

Not in 1989 obviously but I've just thought of Peter O'Toole in the Sixties and he fits as well.

I need to start by saying that I thought Nicholson's performance in Batman was the Best Lead Actor Performance of 1989, but if I had to choose someone else, as a previous posters mentioned, I could have seen Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, or even Anthony Perkins in the role. Willem Dafoe might have been able to pull it off, even Nicolas Cage.

What about Joe Pesci? "Oh you think I'm funny? I make you laugh?"

Robin Williams. He was actually promised the part too. He later fell out with Warner Bros. due to them going back on the promise and as a result declined the role of The Riddler.

Yeah of course – he got top billing, much like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Batman & Robin.

I’m still trying to picture what The Coens’ Batman would have been like. They turned it down in favor of Miller’s Crossing (which was the correct decision, no doubt), but it’s a fun “what if?”

I like to imagine it being a bit like the 60’s tv show. Bruce Campbell as Batman and Raul Julia with a mustache as a Cesar Romero Joker.