Joker co-writer and director Todd Phillips has reportedly signed on for a sequel to the Academy Award-winning Warner Bros. film.
THR published a list of the top 100 attorneys in Hollywood while also citing notable deals they helped oversee. In the article, it's noted that one of attorney Warren Dern's clients is Phillips, who "struck a deal to co-write the next Joker installment."
This news follows a similar report in early May that suggested a Joker sequel was in development after several years of silence on the topic. Prior to that, in December 2019, Phillips weighed in on conflicting reports about a potential sequel, saying, "When a movie does $1 billion and cost $60 million to make, of course it comes up. But Joaquin and I haven’t really decided on it. We’re open. I mean, I’d love to work with him on anything, quite frankly. So who knows? But it would have to have a real thematic resonance the way this one did, ultimately being about childhood trauma and the lack of love, and the loss of empathy. All those things are really what made this movie work for us, so we’d have to have something that had an equal thematic resonance."
Joker is loosely based on the DC villain of the same name and centers on Arthur Fleck, a mentally ill man who works as a for-hire clown. However, after losing his job and access to his medication, he slowly descends into madness.
Directed by Todd Phillips, Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Bill Camp, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Glenn Fleshler, Douglas Hodge, Marc Maron, Josh Pais and Shea Whigham.
Source: THR