If the idea of “Joker in Space” wasn’t enough of an indication that Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix were more than comfortable throwing everything at the wall when coming up with a follow-up to their 2019 hit “Joker,” then perhaps their pitch for Joker on Broadway will convince you. Talking to Variety for a recent interview, Phillips and Phoenix discussed the process of developing a sequel to “Joker” and how they eventually landed on their musical concept for “Joker: Folie à Deux.”
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Even before “Joker” hit theaters, receiving critical acclaim and over a billion dollars at the box office, Phoenix and Phillips knew they had to follow the character further. Phoenix would even have dreams of Arthur Fleck on stage, singing and joking.
“Todd was in the wings talking to me through a headset,” Phoenix said of the dreams. “I woke up feeling elated and called him, hoping he’d want to do a show with me.”
Phillips was intrigued and considered the idea of a Broadway show, but knowing Phoenix, knew it would be almost impossible to pull off. He said to Variety, “When we started really thinking about it, we realized it takes four years to put something like that together. And is Joaquin really going to give six months of his life to do that every night onstage? Then we thought about doing it at the Carlyle as sort of a smaller thing. But COVID hit.”
Even though this idea may sound ridiculous to some, Phillips shared that an idea doesn’t really interest him if it doesn’t involve some element of danger or the unknown.
“Why do something if it doesn’t scare the shit out of you?” Phillips said. “I’m addicted to risk. I mean, it keeps you up at night. It makes your hair fall out. But it’s the sweat that keeps you going.”
While their Broadway dreams quickly dissipated, the idea of Joker singing and being a part of a huge theatrical experience inspired them, pushing them to lean into risk and make their sequel to a non-traditional comic book movie a non-traditional musical fantasia.
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“The question became, ‘how can we top ourselves?’” said Phillips. “And you can only do that if you do something dangerous. But there were days on set where you’d look around and think, ‘Holy fucking shit! What did we do?’”
Lady Gaga, who plays a version of Harley Quinn in “Joker: Folie à Deux,” reiterated Phillips’ comments, explaining that the music really exists to emphasize the love her and Joker find in one another.
“Todd took a very big swing with this whole concept and with the script, giving the sequel to ‘Joker’ this audacity and complexity,” Gaga said. “There’s music, there’s dance, it’s a drama, it’s also a courtroom drama, it’s a comedy, it’s happy, it’s sad. It’s a testament to [Todd] as a director, that he would rather be creative than just tell a traditional story of love.”
Though Phillips and Phoenix were able to cook up plenty of ideas for future “Joker” stories, it seems the upcoming sequel may close the book on this particular narrative.
“It was fun to play in this sort of sandbox for two movies, but I think we’ve said what we wanted to say in this world,” Phillips said. However, despite Phoenix’s history of exiting productions he’s committed to , Phillips is still eager to keep the partnership going.
“I’d love to keep working with Joaquin but on a comedy, because he can be so loose and funny,” he said to Variety. “And I think people really want comedies right now. The trailer for ‘Joker 2’ sort of sums things up when it says, ‘What the world needs now is love.’ But I would go farther: We could use a good laugh too.”
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