Sure sounds like they want to make one, though…
At the time of writing on a cold enough Sunday night, Joker has taken a jaw-dropping $934 million at the worldwide box office.
There’s still plenty of time for it to hit the coveted billion-dollar milestone, and even move a little bit beyond such a colossal figure.
Love the film – and many, many people seem to – or hate it, you can’t deny the impact that it’s had, especially considering it was made for somewhere between $55 – $70 million, was clearly constructed for an adult audience and presents a more dramatic, difficult vision of The Joker than most mainstream movie-goers are conditioned to.
Word of mouth has clearly played a factor in ongoing and repeat business, and the cult of Joker is very real indeed. In light of such huge success, surely a sequel is all but guaranteed?
Well, that’s where it gets slightly complicated. Writer and director Todd Phillips is one thing, but the idea of doing a direct sequel without Joaquin Phoenix feels impossible.
Prior to Joker’s release, both men were at pains to insist that this would be a standalone work. No multi-film contracts, no follow-ups dictated by how well it does, no continuation of the story.
$934 million, though.
As for how Phillips and Phoenix feel about things, they’re remaining coy enough, but with each new interview they seem a little more open to the idea.
Speaking as part of an upcoming cover story in Hollywood industry magazine The Envelope – as highlighted by The Los Angeles Times – the pair are sticking to their ‘We’ll only make one if there’s a good enough reason to do so’ guns.
“We haven’t talked about it a ton,” Phillips claims.
“We’ve only talked about the fact that if we ever did one – and I’m not saying we are because right now we’re not – it couldn’t just be this wild and crazy movie about the ‘Clown Prince of Crime.’ That just doesn’t interest us. It would have to have some thematic resonance in a similar way that this does.
“Because I think that’s ultimately why the movie connected, outside of all the noise and mishegoss of the last month and a half. I think the reason why it’s resonating is what’s going on underneath the movie. So many movies are about the spark, and this movie is about the powder. If you could capture that again in a real way, that would be interesting.”
Phoenix, meanwhile, admits that he playfully requested that his writer and director provide him with future material during production.
“In the second or third week of shooting, I was like, ‘Todd, can you start working on a sequel? There’s way too much to explore.’ It was kind of in jest – but not really.”
Watch this space, essentially…
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
