Todd Phillips’ “Joker” released in 2019, ditching the comic book formula in favour of a dark, violent character study that generated a divisive reception along with plenty of awards talk – not to mention Oscars for its star and score.
The film is now getting a follow-up with “Joker: Folie à Deux,” which sees Phillips return using a script he wrote with “Joker” scribe Scott Silver. In addition, the film stars Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn in a movie dubbed a part-musical.
In an interview with YouTuber Matti Haapoja (via Slashfilm), the first film’s returning cinematographer Lawrence Sher spoke about the visual influences of the film which will take a quite different approach to its predecessor.
Whereas the first was heavily inspired by Scorsese’s “The King of Comedy” and “Taxi Driver,” Sher says the sequel is aesthetically set to borrow from Francis Ford Coppola’s 1982 musical film “One From the Heart” – a movie filled with some striking filmmaking and shots.
Sher says that images of the musical became the go-to reference for the filmmaking team:
“[One from the Heart] became a conversation starter for me and Mark Friedberg the production designer and Todd [Phillips] as we scouted in those early days. Even if it’s not a reference that you’re going to take on set and say, ‘I want it to look like that,’ it’s like brain food. It’s dream food.”
Frederic Forrest, Teri Garr, Raul Julia and Nastassja Kinski starred in “One From the Heart” about a couple calling it quits after five years. One of the most infamous critical and commercial flops of all time, the $26 million budgeted film made only a little over $636,000 at the box-office along with scoring poor reviews.
It also kicked off a run of film duds for Coppola, who was essentially untouchable in the 1970s but spent much of the 1980s working to pay off the debts racked up by the failure of ‘Heart’.
“Joker: Folie a Deux” will strut its way into theatres on October 4th 2024.
