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 .” 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 int.