After conflicting reports about whether or not Todd Phillips’ Joker is going to get a sequel, Warner Bros.
reportedly offered Joaquin Phoenix $50 million to make sure this is happening.
Phoenix’s portrayal of Batman’s number one arch nemesis received praises, and earned him multiple awards including his first Academy Award.
“Joaquin initially felt Joker was a standalone movie,” said an insider for the Mirror, “But he’s changed his tune now. He says he wants to play this character again, despite the controversies that came with the release last year.”
Sources say that the offer is still being negotiated, and that the Hollywood actor is very engaged with the writing of the scripts.
Joker surprisingly became the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all-time as it crossed $1 billion mark, becoming the most profitable comic book movie of all time and picked up several awards from various award-giving bodies.
“They plan to make two sequels in the next four years, with a long-term commitment to Joaquin and his Joker director Todd Phillips and producer Bradley Cooper,” the source said.
“It’s all about getting Joaquin to accept the terms – and the biggest payday of his career by far.”
This is not the first time rumors have gone around about the Joker sequel, and even director Todd Phillips came out to deny that it is happening.
Phillips at the time insisted that “there’s not a contract for us to even write a sequel.”
The studio hopes to have the films ready for 2022 and 2024, but it seems COVID-19 is seriously slowing down things in Hollywood at the moment.