Brendan Gleeson is set to join Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga in Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux.
The Warner Bros. and DC Films project is a sequel to Joker, the Oscar-winning, $1 billion-grossing, 2019 box office hit based on the DC villain. Gleeson’s latest film is Banshees of Inisherin, from director Martin McDonagh and co-starring Colin Farrell, which will bow in Venice ahead of a North American premiere in Toronto.
Gleeson and Farrell starred in the director’s 2008 film breakout In Bruges. Phillips wrote the script for Joker: Folie à Deux with Joker co-writer Scott Silver. The new project’s title references a medical term for an identical or similar mental disorder that affects two or more individuals, usually members of the same family.
When Warners first made Joker, it was far from a sure thing. A dark and moody character piece, the project was a Taxi Driver-meets-King of Comedy descent into madness set in a late 1970s decaying city.
By the time it was released in October 2019, Joker was riding a wave of adulation from the fall film festivals, which helped propel the movie into a record-breaking opening weekend, with box office analysts changing their predictions every day. It ended its theatrical run as the No. 4 highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time. It then earned 11 Oscar nominations, including best picture, and won best actor (for Phoenix) and best score (for Hildur Gudnadottir).
Warner Bros. has set an Oct. 4, 2024, release for Joker: Folie à Deux. Deadline was first reported the news on Gleeson joining the Joker sequel.
