EMPIRE has an upcoming big feature story on JOKER: FOLIE à DEUX which includes some very interesting details. Here are a few highlights…
- Arthur Fleck is not and will never become the criminal mastermind “The Joker” seen in the source material…
We would never do that. Because Arthur clearly is not a criminal mastermind. He was never that. Arthur has become this symbol to people. This unwilling, unwitting symbol now paying for the crimes of the first film, but at the same time finding the only thing he ever wanted, which was love. That’s always what he’s been about, even though he’s been pushed and pulled in all these directions. So we tried to just make the most pure version of that.
- Lady Gaga’s Harley “Lee” Quinzel is both the Harley we know from the comics, but also very different, says Todd Phillips…
While there are some things that people would find familiar in her, it’s really Gaga’s own interpretation, and Scott [Silver, co-writer] and I’s interpretation. She became the way how [Charles] Manson had girls that idolized him. The way that sometimes these [imprisoned murderers] have people that look up to them. There are things about Harley in the movie that were taken from the comic books, but we took it and molded it to the way we wanted it to be.
- Phillips says this new film isn’t a traditional sequel and the inmates are running the (Arkham) asylum…
I don’t think of it as a sequel. Hangover 2 was a sequel. So often a sequel is more of the same, just bigger. Of course [Folie À Deux] is a sequel, but it felt like we were making something entirely different. It’s tonally and inherently something way more different. The first one subverted the expectations of what it was. So how do you do that again? I always said, early on, the film should feel as if it was made by crazy people. Like the inmates are running the asylum. It does feel like a big swing. You just go, ‘Well, fuck it. Why not? What are we all doing here, if not to do that?’
Like I said, very interesting stuff…which I’m sure will make some people have meltdowns…even before they’ve seen the film.
CLICK HERE or pick up this copy of EMPIRE for the full article. – Bill “Jett” Ramey