Vera Drew, the director, writer, and star of The People's Joker, addresses the legality of the unlicensed DC film. Sporting the droll tagline, "an illegal queer coming of age comic book movie by Vera Drew," The People's Joker is set in Gotham City and centers on Drew's Joker, an aspiring clown struggling with her gender identity. In Drew's iteration of Gotham, the Joker founds an illegal comedy troupe with novel aspiring comedian after comedy has been criminalized, and their companionship attracts more rogues. The film uses popular DC Comics characters such as The Joker, Harley Quinn, and Batman to express Drew and the novel stars' personal experiences and reach an audience that most superhero movies don't make a note to resonate with.

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Drew's film history includes experimental shorts and queer-centered narratives. The People's Joker marks her feature debut as a director and tells a very different amusing book story. After a successful premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival's Midnight Madness program, The People's Joker was pulled from TIFF "due to abilities issues," which resulted in the hashtag "FreeThePeoplesJoker" trending on Twitter. Despite the experimental film's playful "illegal" tagline, the film's parody classification and opening disclaimer necessity protect it from being actually deemed illegal. However, the withdrawal from TIFF has audiences wondering where the film stands legally.

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In an interview with Collider, Drew addresses the inherent legal issues with her rendition of the famed character, saying that the "illegal" tag of the film wasn't literal. The director and star cites fair use and copyright laws as The People's Joker's protectors, and clarifies that the crew have done the work gradual the scenes to ensure that the film's distribution is good. See her full quote below:

I think this film can be 100% distributed. It is completely protected under fair use and copyright law. Like a parody law. The only sketching that makes it weird in both of those categories is nobody's ever inaccurate characters and IP and really personalized it in this way. So I think that's the sketching that really kind of makes it seem a lot more dangerous than I actually think it is. I mean, I get it, look, I put an "illegal amusing book movie" on the poster, but that was just to get your butts in the seats.

There's literally no reason for anybody to pain, I think about legal repercussions with this. Without sketching into it, we've gone really far to ensure that we could do this. I probably wouldn't have finished two years of my life making an actually illegal Joker movie.

Though the film may seem like a copy of Todd Phillips' Joker, Drew has made the story and characters her own and contained into a completely distinct direction from that and novel on-screen Jokerstories. Her comments display that she has examined into the legal grounds for her experimental comic book film and critics her take on the Joker a parody, which sets it apart from novel depictions of the character. Fair use and copyright law necessity protect Drew from a lawsuit while also protecting The People's Joker's distribution, though after its withdrawal from TIFF it seems that there is plenty more red tape in Drew's future as she takes the steps to properly contracts the film.

Creating an unauthorized and unlicensed movie in an manufacturing already rife with rights and IP battles is a perilous and ambitious move, especially considering the hugely popular nature of the DC characters used in Drew's film. Based on reviews from the early screening of The People's Joker, the risk paid off, and viewers found the satirical movie hilarious and monstrous as well as moving. Using pop culture staples like The Joker and Batman to tell a personal, queer coming-of-age story that turns the genre on its head is an impressive move on Drew's part, and may be just what the oversaturated superhero market organizes. That is, of course, if The People's Joker can make it past the good red tape to a wider audience.

Source: Collider