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- Scott Silver (born November 30, 1964) is an American screenwriter and film director.Silver is best known for such films as Johns, The Mod Squad, 8 Mile, The Fighter, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and Joker, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, alongside Todd Phillips.
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Scott Silver (born November 30, 1964) is an American screenwriter [1] and film director. [2] Silver is best known for such films as Johns, [3] The Mod Squad, [2] 8 Mile, The Fighter, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, [4] and Joker, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted ...
4 days ago · Spawn. In a new interview with Comic Book, Todd McFarlane revealed he’s hired two-time Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Scott Silver ( The Fighter) to rewrite his Spawn screenplay. There’s ...
Dec 26, 2019 · The success of Todd Phillips' Joker began with the boldly off-kilter screenplay by Phillips and Scott Silver.
Jun 29, 2023 · Screenwriter Scott Silver, known for Joker, The Fighter, 8 Mile and The Finest Hours, has bought a mid-century modern house owned by socialite and philanthropist Jamie Tisch for $4.99 million.
- The Man Who Laughs, Taxi Driver and other inspirations for the DC blockbuster.
- The Man Who Laughs
- The King of Comedy
- Modern Times
- Dog Day Afternoon
- Taxi Driver
By Jim Vejvoda
Posted: Oct 7, 2019 6:45 pm
Joker director Todd Phillips was unknowingly inspired by the very actor and film that inspired the comic book Joker's look -- Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughs -- for his new box office smash.
In a recent interview with IGN, Phillips revealed the five movies Joker fans need to watch to understand the influences for his interpretation of Joker. These are the films that Phillips and his co-screenwriter Scott Silver drew from the most for their gritty, more realistic interpretation of the iconic DC Comics supervillain. And there's not a Batman movie among them.
In my review of Joker, which I gave a 10 out of 10, I said: "Clearly drawing its spirit and style from classic ‘70s and ‘80s films like Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy, A Clockwork Orange, and Dog Day Afternoon, director Todd Phillips’ Joker presents a Gotham City that is unmistakably a stand-in for the hellish New York City of the era." As it turns out, three of those films are among those that Phillips, during our interview with him, listed as the films Joker fans need to see to fully appreciate the movie.
Read on for Todd Phillips' five must-see films for Joker fans or scroll through the slideshow below:
This 1928 silent Expressionist melodrama, based on Victor Hugo's book, follows Gwynplaine, a nobleman's son whose face was disfigured into a permanent grin, leading him to end up as a freak show attraction dubbed The Laughing Man. Actor Conrad Veidt's Gwynplaine is an acknowledged direct inspiration for the comic book Joker. Not that director Todd Phillips and his co-screenwriter Scott Silver knew that at the time they were developing their take on the Clown Prince of Crime.
"I think you have to start with The Man Who Laughs, which is a silent film that really was a huge inspiration for us and oddly was a huge inspiration for the original creators of Joker, which we didn't even know, believe it or not, as silly as that sounds," Phillips confessed. "At the time we were like, let's look at that."
Martin Scorsese's 1983 black comedy has long been a much talked about inspiration for Todd Phillips' Joker. Scorsese's film follows wannabe (and not particularly funny) comedian Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro, who also stars in Joker). Rupert is in awe of late-night talk show king Jerry Langford (a surprisingly effective Jerry Lewis giving a low-key, dour performance). Rupert believes that if only Jerry would book him on his show then his career would take off. Rupert's desperation finally boils over when he kidnaps Jerry. His ransom demand? Why, an appearance on Langford's show, of course.
As we wrote in this more expansive piece on King of Comedy's influence on Joker, "It’s not a big stretch to remake The King of Comedy, directly, with the Joker in the lead role. It’s the story of a man who can no longer tell fantasy from reality, whose delusions have disturbing consequences. And although director Martin Scorsese knows that Pupkin is a terrifying person, he and De Niro never lose sight of the fact that his actions are the result of a tragically disturbed mind. Pupkin’s comedy routine, which we finally see at the end of the film, is a litany of tragic abuses he suffered as a child, filtered through a mind that is desperate to share them with the world and to say that, in the end, all that horror was hilarious."
According to Todd Phillips, "I think you'd have to watch Modern Times because we believe there is some Chaplin in Arthur [Fleck] that I think is really important." Like Chaplin's Tramp, Joaquin Phoenix's Arthur Fleck is a societal outcast who struggles to find his place in an increasingly desperate society racked by economic struggles. Modern Times is directly referenced in Joker, as evidenced by this shot below from the final trailer.
Charlie Chaplin's 1936 film uses comedy to comment on the dehumanizing effect mechanization has on laborers. Modern Times finds Chaplin's iconic character the Little Tramp failing through a series of industrial jobs -- he's pretty lousy at all of them -- and finds life in prison easier and more appealing.
Phillips cites Sidney Lumet's 1975 classic as inspiration for Joker "because of how the anti-heroes become embraced." In Dog Day Afternoon, Al Pacino and his Serpico director Lumet reunited for yet another fact-based New York crime drama, this one co-starring Pacino's Godfather sibling John Cazale, Charles Durning, and Chris Sarandon.
The story takes place on August 22, 1972, an infernal summer day in Brooklyn when two ne'er-do-wells (Pacino and Cazale) pull a bank job to pay for a sex reassignment surgery for Pacino's lover (Sarandon). Alternately suspenseful and comic, Lumet masterfully captures the attitude and atmosphere of the Big Apple as he documents the robbers' stand-off with the NYPD, leading to Pacino's famous "Attica! Attica!" rant that rouses the masses to his side (watch some of that scene in the video below).
Scorsese's The King of Comedy and Taxi Driver are both profiles of deranged and broken men who criminally lash out at those they feel have rejected them, and the Joker movie is certainly in a similar vein. In addition to Arthur Fleck's similarities to delusional loner Travis Bickle, the grimy despair of Joker's period era Gotham City certainly owes its seediness to New York's hellish depiction in Taxi Driver.
Paul Schrader scripted this controversial, bleak, and brilliant study of Vietnam vet Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) whose insomnia drives him to become a cabbie (no pun intended). Disgusted by the people he encounters every night on the streets of Manhattan, Travis resolves to "clean up" the hellhole. After failing to assassinate Senator Palantine, Travis then tries to "save" underage prostitute Iris (Jodie Foster) from her pimp Sport (Harvey Keitel). Cybill Shepherd plays campaign worker Betsy, whose rejection of Travis finally spurs his climactic deadly rampage.
Watch Robert De Niro's most iconic moment from Taxi Driver in the clip below:
For more on Joker, learn what Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Phillips had to say in defense of accusations that Joker is a “dangerous” movie, find out how Martin Scorsese helped out the film, and watch Joaquin Phoenix talk up the Joker makeup design.
Scott Silver. Highest Rated: 91% Stronger (2017) Lowest Rated: 3% The Mod Squad (1999) Birthday: Nov 30, 1964. Birthplace: Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. Writer-director Scott Silver...
Oct 10, 2019 · Todd Phillips and Scott Silver created a cultural phenomenon with their 'Joker' script. Listen to the director and co-writer break down the movie's most iconic scene.
