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Put On A Happy Face - First Teaser For Joaquin Phoenix's 'Joker' Released

MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- The first teaser trailer for the "Joker" starring Joaquin Phoenix, was released Wednesday morning.

The chilling teaser shows a pre-Joker Arthur Fleck, working as a clown on the street, helping his mother take a bath, possibly attempting to date and generally veering toward madness.

Director Todd Phillips told an audience of movie theater owners at CinemaCon last week, where the teaser trailer first debuted, there has been a lot written about the film and not much has been all that accurate.

"But that's what happens when you set out to make an origin story about a character who doesn't have an origin," he said of Batman's nemesis.

Plus, he'd rather it be a surprise for audiences when it hits theater October 4. He's even playing a little coy with his own studio, telling them he couldn't describe it. When they asked for a genre, at least, he said, "It's a tragedy."

Zazie Beetz, Robert De Niro, Marc Maron, and Shea Wigham also star.

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