Todd Phillips’ “Joker” was perfect as it was and didn’t need a sequel. Yesterday’s news that Phillips is working on one and that star Joaquin Phoenix is reading the screenplay has me dreading at the prospect of it all.
Why oh why must Phillips/Phoenix mess with the lightning-in-a-bottle moment of the 2019 Venice Golden Lion winner. It’s not even that I don’t believe a good movie can be made out of this one, but I like my great movies untouched, their legacies unburdened by being messed around with.
The sequel is said to be called “Joker: Folie à Deux,” (nifty title) and Phillips posted a shot of the script on his instagram. Suffice to say, the internet lost its mind. In the same post, Phillips included a shot of star Joaquin Phoenix reading the screenplay.
The French term “folie a deux” is a psychological term derived from when two people engage in a shared delusive reality together. This might imply that Joker’s girlfriend, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), would be entering the fray here.
Again, they better have a great story to tell here because “Joker” definitely does not need a sequel, and I mean that as the highest compliment. The 2019 film perfectly depicted the zeitgeist via Phoenix’s deranged urban saviour.
The R-rated “Joker” grossed over a billion dollars worldwide and earned 12 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and a Best Actor statuette for Phoenix.
Still no distributor for "Bucking Fastard," "Alpha Gang," "The Last Photograph," "Closing Night," and "The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd." The issue seems to be quality more than a lack of willingness to buy.