We open on the CEO of Comedy Central Europe ensconced in his office in a high-rise building. He tells us that comedy is serious business, which is why Comedy Central has to be selective in what it shows, translating into its strict “no clown” policy. Suddenly a cream pie hits the office window.
The spot cuts outside to a horde of rioting clowns, pitted against a fully equipped police squadron. Pies are thrown at the cops who raise their shields, blocking the dessert assault. However, a clown gets on the other side of the blockade, taps a policeman on the shoulder who turns around. The clown lifts the cop’s helmet visor and make a direct hit with a cream pie.
The chaos includes a clown fired from a cannon who lands safely on the Comedy Central roof. He unfurls multi-colored handkerchiefs which are tied together, making for an amusing impromptu ladder for other clowns to climb up on in their bid to take over the building.
Back to ground level, a clown juggles a number of red balls, only to throw them all at riot squad police.
Authority prevails it would seen, though, as one of the parting scenes shows several sad clowns being hauled off in a paddy wagon.
“Riot” was directed by Jonathan David of recently launched production house Happy Ending for Amsterdam-based agency Nothing.
“Joker” Goes On A Dark and Fantastical Musical Journey–With Lady Gaga
"Joker" is a hard act to follow. Todd Phillips' dark, Scorsese-inspired character study about the Batman villain made over a billion dollars at the box office, won Joaquin Phoenix his first Oscar, dominated the cultural discourse for months and created a new movie landmark.
It wasn't for everyone, but it got under people's skin.
Knowing that it was a fool's errand to try to do it again, Phillips and Phoenix pivoted, or rather, pirouetted into what would become " Joker: Folie ร Deux." The dark and fantastical musical journey goes deeper into the mind of Arthur Fleck as he awaits trial for murder and falls in love with a fellow Arkham inmate, Lee, played by Lady Gaga. There is singing, dancing and mayhem.
If Phillips and Phoenix have learned anything over the years, it's that the scarier something is, the better. So once again they rebelled against expectations and went for broke with something that's already sharply divided critics.
As with the first, audiences will get to decide for themselves when it opens in theaters on Oct. 4.
"HOW ARE YOU GOING TO GET JOAQUIN PHOENIX TO DO A SEQUEL?"
Any comic book movie that makes a billion dollars is going to have the sequel talk. But with "Joker" it was never a given that it would go anywhere: Joaquin Phoenix doesn't do sequels. Yet it turned out, Phoenix wasn't quite done with Arthur Fleck yet either.
During the first, the actor wondered what this character would look like in different situations. He and the on-set photographer mocked up classic movie posters, like "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Yentl" with the Joker in them and showed them to Phillips.
"Sometimes you're just done with something and other times you have an ongoing interest,"... Read More