DC happy with R-rated adaptation of Batman: The Killing Joke

DC’s plans to adapt Alan Moore’s classic Batman comic-book, The Killing Joke as an animated movie have gone down well with fans, particularly following the announcement that Mark Hamill will once again be lending his voice to the part of the Joker. However, excitement could be about to crank up yet another notch in the wake of news that the studio is apparently happy to go for an R-rating.

Batman-News reports that producer James Tucker revealed at New York Comic Con that DC has given director, Sam Liu carte blanche to make the film as adult as he chooses, with the studio happy to back a decision to make it R-rated. Whether or not that’s the direction Liu decides to go in remains to be seen (and indeed, Tucker later took to Twitter to assert that nothing has been decided as yet), but the possibilities are certainly exciting.

Of all the Batman stories the studio could choose to adapt, The Killing Joke is certainly one of the darkest in the canon (spoilers ahead). The story’s opening act has the Joker shooting Barbara Gordon in her apartment, then taking nude pictures of her paralysed body with which to taunt her father. Batman & Robin it most certainly ain’t…

If the adaptation plans to be faithful to Moore’s source material, an R-rating would definitely seem to make sense, although the commercial implications are obvious. Expect a call to be made sooner rather than later, with the film due to arrive at some point in 2016.