Brett Cullen has been cast as Thomas Wayne in the 'Joker' movie.

Brett Cullen

Brett Cullen

The 62-year-old actor - who previously played a congressman in Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight Rises' - has been handed the coveted role in the Todd Phillips-directed film, according to ComicBook.com.

Alec Baldwin was also in the running for the role, but he dropped out of negotiations within the space of 24 hours.

Other big-name stars set to feature in the much-anticipated film include Zazie Beets and Robert De Niro, with Joaquin Phoenix starring as The Joker.

Filming has already begun and the director recently released the first image of Joaquin in the guise of his character.

In the photograph - which is simply captioned "Arthur", presumably in reference to his name before he was given the mononym - the Hollywood actor is seen with a serious expression on his face and long, floppy hair.

Prior to its release, Joaquin teased the upcoming movie, revealing it wouldn't fit into any one specific movie genre.

He said: "I wouldn't quite classify this as like any genre. I wouldn't say it's a superhero movie, or a studio movie or a ... It feels unique, and I think more then anything, and probably the most important thing, is Todd seems very passionate about it and very giving, and so that's exciting.

"I think, underneath the excitement of these films, and the size of them, there are these incredible characters that are dealing with real life struggles. And sometimes that is uncovered and exposed, and sometimes it isn't, and so I always felt, like, there were characters in comics that were really interesting and deserve the opportunity to be kind of studied.

"And so I think that's what Todd sees appealing about this idea."