We are exactly one year away from Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie à Deux” being released in theaters. Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix are set to star in the sequel, which is said to be a musical.
This past Valentine’s Day, Phillips posted a first look at Phoenix and Gaga in “Joker: Folie à Deux.” Today, he’s decided to post another image, this one of Phoenix’s Joker drenched in rain.
Last Spring, Grace Randolph had reported that ‘Folie à Deux’ would tell its story via the perspectives of both Gaga’s Harley Quinn and Phoenix’s Joker. The film’s main plot would revolve around musical therapy sessions at Arkham Asylum.
Lawrence Sher also confirmed that he and Phillips used Francis Ford Coppola’s ravishingly beautiful “One from the Heart” as a template and starting point for the visual schema of the upcoming sequel.
Meanwhile, the musical style of ‘Folie à Deux’ is said to be heavily inspired by Liza Minelli musicals such as “Cabaret” and “That’s Entertainment!” Phillips also mentioned that if “Joker” was his answer to “Taxi Driver,” then ‘Folie A Deux’ was partly influenced by Scorsese’s 1977 bomb “New York, New York” starring Robert De Niro and Minelli.
The first “Joker” made $1 billion dollars worldwide. The fact that this sequel is a musical starring Lady Gaga makes me think that maybe it won’t be as popular a film as the first one. Just a hunch.
One things for sure: Phillips seems to be creatively swinging for the fences with this one. You can’t fault him for lack of ambition.
This is the adaptation of the nonfiction book by Dan Schilling and Lori Longfritz. It wrapped production in February and has been in post-production ever since. The film test-screened a few months ago.