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Misfits Entertainment has hired Film4 head of development Ben Coren in the new role of head of scripted.

Coren will oversee an expansion into the scripted space for UK production company Misfits, which has made its name with documentaries including The Contestant, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story and Bafta-nominated McQueen.

“After so long on the financier side, it’s a privilege to move back into the world of indies at such a vibrant and dynamic company, with a commitment to telling stories from outsider perspectives,” said Coren.

He leaves Film4 after 11 years, during which he held several roles including head...

Heath Ledger died months before The Dark Knight arrived in theaters. As a result, the actor never got to see the response to his performance as The Joker or receive the "Best Supporting Actor" Oscar, which he was posthumously awarded the following year.

It's impossible to imagine anyone else playing the Clown Prince of Crime in that movie as Ledger has become nothing short of iconic as a result of his incredible performance.

However, Joker star Joaquin Phoenix - who won an Oscar for his portrayal of the character in the 2019 movie - has now revealed that Christopher Nolan approached him for the role that ultimately went to Ledger.

Explaining that he "wasn't ready" at the time, Phoenix said, "I talked to Chris Nolan about “The Dark Knight” and that didn’t happen for whatever reason, I wasn’t ready then...I can’t imagine what it would be if...

Given that it's being developed by Sony, there's been some concern among fans that Amazon's Spider-Noir series starring Nicolas Cage might not see the title character actually suit up. 

Peter Parker has already been replaced by Ben Reilly as Spider-Man Noir, but newly revealed photos and footage from the show's set confirm we're getting a comic-accurate take on the wall-crawling private detective. 

The hero looks like he's stepped straight off the page with a design that's also pretty much identical to what we saw in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Based on how this scene is playing out, Ben will see a fair bit of action as he rides atop a car while shooting webs into the distance. He also has his trademark hat and goggles, though we should point out that it's a stuntman in the suit, not Cage.

Cage will be joined in the series by Lamorne Morris (as...

While this year has had its fair share of surprising flops, Joker: Folie à Deux is probably one of the more surprising ones. It had the hype of Lady Gaga taking on the role of Harley Quinn and the musical twist potentially lent itself to exploring interesting territory as an R-rated sequel to a notorious comic book villain. The movie’s response would become incredibly underwhelming, and Blu-ray.com has announced that Warner Bros. is already set to release the film’s 4K Blu-ray and standard Blu-ray release on December 17. The digital release is going to be even sooner, with a recent Variety report on the film’s box office woes revealing WB is dumping it on digital early – October 29 – in the hopes of recouping some of its $200 million investment.

Joker: Folie à Deux stars Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Zazie Beetz, Steve Coogan, and Harry Lawtey. The description reads, “Joker: Folie À Deux...

Joker made over $1 billion at the box office in 2019, but Joker: Folie à Deux has flopped, earning a mere $192 million worldwide since opening earlier this month.

Warner Bros. has essentially given up on the sequel, hence its surprisingly early debut on Digital platforms on October 29. The movie will be available for early Premium Digital Ownership at home and for 48-hour rental via PVOD on participating digital platforms where you purchase or rent movies, including Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Fandango at Home, and more.

It's also been confirmed that, starting December 17, Joker: Folie à Deux arrives on 4K Uhd, Blu-ray and DVD from online and physical retailers.

Here are the special features included in both the Digital and physical releases. They mostly sound like generic featurettes (there are no deleted scenes) but that long-form documentary is undeniably intriguing.

Everything Must Go (4 Part Longform Documentary) Can I Have A Cigarette?...

The seedy underbelly of Gotham City sits bleakly in an obsidian corner of its universe. Tucked within those corners are shadowy secrets that hide from the light that the elite pretends the city to be. Like a volcano, these shadows yearn to burst out in a society of crime and tragedy, and they’re tethered by those who’d rather see them silenced.

2022’s The Batman, directed by Matt Reeves, featured an enthralling Gotham City littered with interesting characters. Jeffrey Wright’s gruff Jim Gordon, Andy Serkis’s lovable Alfred Pennyworth, Zoë Kravitz’s alluring Selina Kyle (a.k.a. Catwoman), Paul Dano’s unsettling Riddler, and of course, Robert Pattinson’s hopeful yet tortured portrayal of Bruce Wayne and Batman.

Among that cast, one remarkable standout saw actor Colin Farrell magically transform into The Penguin's unique visage. Beneath the makeup and prosthetics lay the Irish actor known for...

In recent years, Barry Keoghan has paved the way for himself into the Hollywood spotlight. The talented Irish actor has been known for his roles in films like The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Banshees of Inisherin. However, it wasn’t until Saltburn that he wound up shooting to stardom alongside Jacob Elordi.

Barry Keoghan in The Banshees of Inisherin (Credit: 20th Century Studios)

Although the 2023 film brought Keoghan major success, no one had expected it to be the one that threw him into the limelight. After all, just a few years before it, he had teamed up with Marvel to bring a new kind of superhero film to the big screen. Unfortunately, it fell short of MCU expectations.

Why Barry Keoghan believes the Eternals failed

According to posts on X, Barry Keoghan turned 32 years old on the 18th of October. Although the actor’s celebration plans stayed under wraps,...

As we enter into another awards season to keep the cold winter days at bay, Directors Notes is thrilled to partner with the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) for the longlist announcement of The Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director) sponsored by BBC Film. An award named in honour of the British film and television director’s commitment to supporting new talent, a mission very close to our hearts, it feels particularly apt that Dn gets to share the following list of 13 impressive feature debut directors. The final five nominated filmmakers will be announced by BIFA and Directors Notes on Tuesday 5th November, with the winner revealed at the 27th BIFA awards ceremony on Sunday 8th December at iconic Camden venue the Roundhouse. As in previous years of the awards, we look forward to delving into the working processes behind these outstanding films through our signature deep dive interviews with the nominated directors.

Searchlight Pictures top executive Katie Goodson-Thomas told the BFI London Film Festival (Lff) on Tuesday how passion and “humanity” make the studio special even though it gets “priced out” by streaming giants on a daily basis.

Sharing her thoughts and behind-the-scenes insight during a spotlight conversation at the 68th edition of the festival in the British capital, the studio’s head of international production and development said “we are quite light” in the U.K. as a team, with eight staffers in Britain, four of which are lawyers who work across the whole company. The studio is behind movies like The Banshees of Inisherin, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Poor Things, All of Us Strangers, Jojo Rabbit, Boys Don’t Cry, Napoleon Dynamite and Little Miss Sunshine.

Has the studio changed under the ownership of the Walt Disney Co.? “They give us total creative freedom” while allowing the studio to have...

Following a massive second-weekend drop, Joker: Folie à Deux is now officially being labelled a box office flop by the trades. In fact, the latest figures suggest that Todd Phillips' sequel could wind up costing Warner Bros. as much as $200 million before all is said and done.

So far, the downbeat musical has grossed $51.5 million domestically and $165 million globally, and Variety believes that the movie will likely stall at a lifetime gross of around $210M $215M worldwide. With a reported production budget of $200M (plus at least another $100 million to market and distribute), Joker 2 would need to gross $450 million just to break even.

It is worth noting that the studio is not ready to admit defeat just yet.

“Any estimates suggested by anonymous ‘insiders’ or ‘rival executives’ are grossly wrong and continues a trend where rumor is reported as fact,” a Warner Bros. spokesperson said in a statement. “The...

Had Joker: Folie à Deux followed a similar trajectory to 2019's Joker, the sequel would have likely remained #1 at the box office for several weeks. Instead, gory slasher flick Terrifier 3 will take the top spot this weekend with a projected $16 million - $17 million North American debut.

In second place is DreamWorks Animation's The Wild Robot which, during weekend number three, will earn $13.9 million. We'd expected Joker: Folie à Deux to slip to third place, but no, it's been beaten by Beetlejuice Beetlejuice which is on course to gross somewhere around $7.2 million - $7.4 million during its sixth weekend.

As for the Clown Prince of Crime, he's well and truly lost his smile with a shocking $6.6 million - $6.8 million haul from 4,102 theaters from its second weekend.

That's a record-breaking decline of 82%, a new record previously held by The Marvels which dropped by 78% in the same period. Warner Bros. stands to...

2023 was a rotten year for the DC brand. DC Studios' announcement at the start of the year that the franchise would be rebooted lessened interest in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, with each of them struggling at the box office.

Only Blue Beetle really managed to escape the wrath of fans and critics, though it too flopped with $130 million on a budget of over $100 million.

2024's only DC movie is Joker: Folie à Deux and...well, what a week it's been for the sequel. With 33% on Rotten Tomatoes (and 32% courtesy of moviegoers), it's bombed at the box office and will be one of the year's biggest flops when all is said and done.

The blame game has also begun, with filmmaker Todd Phillips said to be responsible for the massive budget after decided he "wanted nothing to do with DC" while making this follow-up.

As Joker: Folie à Deux enters its second weekend in theaters, box office projections point to the sequel dropping to third place behind Terrifier 3 and DreamWorks Animation's The Wild Robot (which opened on September 27).

According to Deadline, Terrifier 3 made roughly $7.7 million on Friday for an expected $15 million weekend. As for The Wild Robot, it grossed $3.6 million yesterday and is expected to earn $13.1 million, an impressive result for a movie that's been buoyed by glowing reviews.

Then, there's Joker: Folie à Deux; in a distant third, the DC Comics adaptation managed to hit $2.8 million yesterday for a projected $8 million - $9 million second weekend, a decline of 77%.

The Joker sequel should be pretty safe in third place as Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will make $6.7 million and Transformers One is eyeing $4.1 million.

"There's a warmth in that scene, which is nice," Joker: Folie à Deux star Joaquin Phoenix recently said of the movie's divisive ending.

Todd Phillips' Joker: Folie à Deux features a background character who gets the spotlight in a pretty shocking manner towards the end of the movie, and actor Connor Storrie has now spoken about his role for the first time.

If you haven't seen the movie yet, major spoilers follow.

At the end of the highly divisive sequel, Arthur Fleck meets a violent when he's killed by another Arkham inmate (Storrie) after first taking responsibility for the crimes he committed in the original film by renouncing his "Joker" persona and confessing during his trial.

The unnamed individual - who we are supposed to view as the real Joker - stops Fleck to tell him a joke, delivering a killer punchline with repeated stabs to the abdomen. As Arthur bleeds out, we see the inmate carve a Glasgow smile onto his face in the background, indicating that he will ultimately become Batman's nemesis.

If you haven't seen Joker: Folie à Deux yet, major spoilers follow.

At the end of Todd Phillips' highly divisive sequel, Arthur Fleck meets a shocking (yet perhaps inevitable) end when he's killed by another Arkham inmate after first taking responsibility for the crimes he committed in the first movie by renouncing his "Joker" persona and confessing during his trial.

The unnamed individual - who the audience is supposed to view as the real Joker - stops Fleck to tell him a joke, delivering a killer punchline with repeated stabs to the abdomen. As Arthur bleeds out, we see the inmate carve a smile onto his face in the background.

While speaking to IGN, star Joaquin Phoenix weighed in on the movie's controversial conclusion, and he feels Arthur's tragic final moments are not without "warmth."

"There's a warmth in that scene, which is nice. That's all that I was thinking about that I was after,...

In Joker: Folie À Deux, we are told that Arthur Fleck's (Joaquin Phoenix) murderous rampage in the first film was the basis for a TV movie. Lee (Lady Gaga) tells Arthur that she loves the movie and has seen it numerous times, but everyone else seems to think it's "awful."

Somewhat disappointingly, we never actually see any footage from this in-universe Joker movie during the sequel, but director Todd Phillips has now confirmed that he was planning to shoot a trailer - with Justin Theroux (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) taking on the role of Arthur Fleck.

"I talked to Justin about it," Phillips tells IGN. "We were going to shoot a trailer at one point. We just ran out of time. Yes, 'Ethan Chase,' the actor from the first movie."

Just in case you're not sure what Phillips is referencing here, Theroux played an actor named Ethan Chase who appears...

Despite everything that's been going on with Joker: Folie à Deux this week, a case can easily be made for 2019's Joker being one of the best comic book movies ever made.

It certainly left a lasting impression, anyway, with a nail-biting final act featuring Arthur Fleck becoming "Joker" and gunning down talk show host Murray Franklin. His actions inspired Gotham City's disenfranchised to rise up and riot, leading to the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne.

As for Arthur, he was freed from captivity and gleefully watched the chaos unfold while smearing the blood on his face into the shape of a smile (we'd later learn Joker was captured and sent to Arkham).

There have been rumblings for years that original plans called for Arthur to use a knife to cut a smile across his face. Now, that's been confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter. Here's an excerpt from the...

The Hollywood Reporter has published an in-depth analysis of where things went wrong for Joker: Folie à Deux, detailing the movie's conception and who might be to blame for its failings. 

Under pressure from Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy - the co-heads of Warner Bros. Pictures - decided to give a Joker sequel the green light. Toby Emmerich had already got the ball rolling, and filmmaker Todd Phillips and lead star Joaquin Phoenix quickly nabbed themselves $20 million paydays.

As for Lady Gaga, she negotiated a deal which saw her paid $12 million to play a new version of Harley Quinn.

Unsurprisingly, De Luca and Abdy "were left reeling" (as was everyone at the studio) after Joker: Folie à Deux's disastrous $37.8 million opening weekend. As for Phillips, he's gone into hiding, "[spending] the weekend in seclusion on a ranch property he owns."

One source close...

Though an argument can definitely be made that some people are going a bit overboard with their criticisms of the movie, there's no denying that Warner Bros. and director Todd Phillips have a misfire on their hands with Joker: Folie à Deux.

After being hit with a disappointing 33% Rotten Tomatoes score and the lowest CinemaScore in comic book movie history (D), the downbeat musical sequel only managed to take in around $40 million at the domestic box office (it did slightly better overseas) this past weekend.

According to The UK's Daily Mail, Lady Gaga, who plays a new take on Harley Quinn, is said to be "shocked" at the negative response following the movie's mostly positive reception at the Venice Film Festival.

"Gaga is surprised by the response to Joker 2 and is shocked that people don’t love it after the response it received from critics before it premiered.

Yesterday, we learned that Joker: Folie à Deux earned only $37.8 million at the North American box office during its opening weekend. We originally expected a $70 million debut, though the number continuously dropped before landing around the $50 million - $55 million mark.

As the weekend drew closer, though, $40 million started looking like the best possible outcome for the Joker sequel. However, it wasn't just domestically that the divisive movie underperformed.

Variety reveals that it fell short overseas with a $77 million start. That's a noteworthy drop from Warner Bros. Discovery's $81.1 million projections on Sunday and another indication that moviegoers wholly rejected Joker: Folie à Deux whether they'd seen it or not.

Now, its revised worldwide total is $114.8 million.

This is an unmitigated disaster; in 2019, Joker opened with $96.2 million in the U.S. alone and eventually grossed over $1 billion worldwide. Analysts currently believe the best this follow-up will manage is $275 million when all is said and done.

Colin Farrell has been active in the industry for the past two and a half decades, but his best roles appear to have come late in his career. The Irish actor’s only Academy Award nomination came for the role in The Banshees of Inisherin. In the same year as the tragicomedy, he also starred in Matt Reeves’ The Batman as the Penguin, a role that got a spin-off movie of its own.

Colin Farrell in The Banshees of Inisherin | Credits: Searchlight Pictures

The Penguin, which premiered on September 19, has received critical acclaim, proving that Farrell has put the days of dreading his Alexander role behind him. His personal life has been more colorful in the 2000s than his career, as he was romantically linked to several A-list stars and models. Did he settle down with any of them?

Was Colin Farrell Married to Jamie Dornan’s Wife? Amelia Warner...

We didn't think things could get any worse for Joker: Folie à Deux but following Warner Bros. $40 million opening weekend estimates and analysts predicting $39 million, the sequel actually debuted in North America with $37.8 million.

This places the Joker sequel significantly below other comic book movie flops, including Morbius ($39 million), The Marvels ($46.1 million), and The Flash ($55 million).

Based on how those performed, chances are Joker: Folie à Deux will end its domestic run with around $70 million. In 2019, Joker's opening weekend was a massive $96 million. If Todd Phillips had box office bonuses written into his contract for hitting certain benchmarks after the first movie grossed over $1 billion, he's got nothing to smile about today.

Here's how Joker: Folie à Deux's opening weekend went:

Mon Update: #JokerFolieADeux - opening wknd #boxoffice breakdown:

$7M | pre-shows

$20.3M | Fri (incl pre-shows)

$11.3M | Sat (-44%)

$6.2M | Sun (-45%)

$37.8M | Wknd

D CinemaScore

33% Rt critics score...

Todd Phillips' Joker: Folie à Deux had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last month, and was greeted with a 12½-minute standing ovation.

Despite this warm reception (which you should never take seriously), the reviews that followed were mixed, and now that the movie is in theaters, we know that the majority of critics - and audiences, for that matter - did not care for the sequel at all.

Is there a chance the movie's lead feels the same way?

Some video clips from the Venice premiere have now been shared online, with supposed "lip-reader" technology applied to decipher what stars Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga were saying to each other during the ovation. While Gaga's responses do seem to line-up, it's far more difficult to figure out if Phoenix's words match the subtitles or if it's just complete nonsense. However, one angle does make it seem like he says "horrible.

Joker: Folie à Deux opened in theaters this weekend to overwhelmingly negative reviews and a dismal debut of $40 million, putting it in the same ballpark as Morbius.

Analysts will no doubt spend weeks trying to figure out where it all went wrong, as will Warner Bros. Discovery. One of the first major projects greenlit under the current leadership regime, the Joker sequel has proven to be a major misstep for the studio.

Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros.' President of Domestic Distribution, tells The Wall Street Journal, "The movie didn’t land with audiences the way we wanted it to." He'd later add that this movie was a "deeper dive into mental illness," arguing that some of its core male audience struggled to connect with Lady Gaga.

So, yes, the studio appears to be telling itself that Joker: Folie à Deux flopped because guys don't like serious dramas or women.

Interestingly,...

Legendary director Francis Ford Coppola has shared high praise for Joker: Folie à Deux and director Todd Phillips.

The divisive DC Comics sequel opened well behind expectations after - hard as it may be to believe - becoming the first comic book movie in history to receive a D CinemaScore. Despite backlash from a lot of fans, the movie does have its share of defenders, and can now count Coppola among them.

“Ever since the wonderful The Hangover, he’s always been one step ahead of the audience, never doing what they expect. Congratulations to Joker: Folie à Deux,” Coppola wrote on Instagram.

Folie à Deux definitely didn't give audiences what they were expecting... for better or worse. Instead of following the Joker after the events of the first film, the story focuses on Arthur Fleck taking responsibility for the crimes he committed and rejecting his Joker persona. In Arkham,...

Joker: Folie à Deux's opening weekend is no laughing matter for Warner Bros. Discovery executives as the movie hasn't just fallen below expectations...it's plummeted beneath them.

In recent days, the Joker sequel's expected debut has slipped from $55 million to $50 million to $45 million...to a shockingly low $39 million. The studio is reporting a $40 million opening, but many analysts, including Deadline's, believe it's even lower.

Surprisingly, the negative reviews and poor word-of-mouth didn't have such a significant impact overseas as it dropped internationally with $81.1 million for a total worldwide haul of $121.1 million, a far cry from the expected $140 million.

The biggest shocker is that, in 2019, Joker made $96.2 million in North America and $139 million internationally, ultimately helping take it to a record-breaking $1 billion worldwide.

There's no way Joker: Folie à Deux will emulate that because it's opened lower than The Marvels ($47 million) and The Flash ($55 million) and is currently in the...

Even if you haven't seen Joker: Folie à Deux, if you've been keeping up with the trailers and promotion, you probably have a pretty good idea of which character we're referring to. But just in case, spoilers follow.

In addition to a new take on Harley Quinn played by Lady Gaga, the sequel introduces young Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey), who leads the prosecution in Arthur Fleck's trial.

When Joker's followers set off a bomb that blows the side of the courthouse apart towards the end of the movie, we catch a quick glimpse of Dent laying in the debris with blood and dust covering the left side of his face as Arthur makes his escape.

A clear nod to the character's villainous persona from the comics, but was this actually supposed to serve as an origin story for the Batman foe who will come to be known as Two-Face?...

Joker: Folie à Deux has been left with absolutely nothing to smile about this weekend because, as we write this, Deadline believes it will open with $47 million or less in North America.

We'll have a better idea later today but the trade has also shared some fascinating insights into where things went wrong for a sequel to a movie which won Oscars and grossed over $1 billion in 2019.

After arguing that no one who watched Joker wanted a musical sequel, they argue that Warner Bros. Discovery's biggest misstep was premiering the movie at the Venice Film Festival last month. Because of that, Joker: Folie à Deux sat on Rotten Tomatoes for a month with middling reviews, so why showcase a mediocre - or downright bad - movie at such a high-profile event?

"Sources tell me it was all part of Warner Bros. appeasing Phillips," the trade writes, "which is why...

If you haven't seen Joker: Folie à Deux yet, major spoilers follow.

At the end of Todd Phillips' sequel, Arthur Fleck meets a violent end when he's stabbed by another Arkham inmate after first taking responsibility for the crimes he committed in the first movie by confessing during his trial.

It's a shocking, if seemingly inevitable development - but Arthur's demise was apparently going to play out very differently.

Shortly before he returns to Arkham State Penitentiary to serve out his sentence, Arthur catches up with Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga) on the now iconic Joker Steps, and she appears to have done what her (former) idol could not by leaving her old life behind and fully embracing her new "Harley Quinn" persona.

However, it seems Lee was originally going to put an exclamation point on her transformation by killing Fleck herself.

In the resurfaced set video below, we see Quinn...

2023 wasn't a good year for the DC brand. DC Studios announcing that the franchise would be rebooted at the start of the year lessened interest in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, with each of them struggling at the box office.

Only Blue Beetle really managed to escape the wrath of fans and critics, though it too flopped with $130 million on a budget of over $100 million.

2024's only DC movie is Joker: Folie à Deux and it's finally here. Unfortunately, reviews have not been kind, most fans seem to hate the sequel, and opening weekend box office projections make for painful reading.

Joker wasn't exactly a critical darling in 2019 but it broke records and earned Joaquin Phoenix an Oscar, so the $1 billion hit spawning a follow-up always seemed in equal parts both inevitable and unlikely. Where did it all go wrong for Joker: Folie à Deux?...

Joker: Folie à Deux is now in theaters, and while the movie has not been embraced by the majority of fans or critics, there's no denying that director Todd Phillips clearly made the sequel he wanted to make... for better or worse.

Phillips and co-writer Scott Silver decided not to go the more obvious route of following Arthur Fleck as he fully embraced his persona as Gotham's Clown Prince of Crime, instead having Arthur take responsibility for the damage "Joker" has caused and confess to his crimes during his trial.

This alienates Lee (Lady Gaga) and the rest of his followers, and ultimately proves to be his undoing when a deranged young inmate stabs him to death in Arkham before carving a Glasgow Smile into his own face.

"Yes, this means Arthur was never really Joker in the first place; he merely served as the inspiration for the man who'd become Joker after him,...

Just when it seemed things couldn't possibly get any worse for Joker: Folie à Deux, Deadline is reporting that with an estimated $20 million on Friday, chances are the DC sequel will open to as little as $45 million in North America this weekend.

The Joker sequel is performing similarly to The Marvels which, last November, earned almost identical sums on Thursday, Friday, and during its first weekend in theaters. As we're sure you'll recall, that ended up being one of Marvel Studios' biggest box office flops.

We're hearing that at least one of the reasons Joker: Folie à Deux is underperforming is because walk-up business is extremely low amid negative reviews and fan backlash.

In fact, Joker: Folie à Deux has been awarded a D CinemaScore by moviegoers. That's the worst rating for a comic book movie in CinemaScore history and means it places below Morbius (C+), Batman and Robin (C...

The 68th BFI London Film Festival’s Official Competition is an exciting showcase of some of the most inventive and thought-provoking films from across the globe, competing for the prestigious Best Film Award. Each entry reflects a unique cinematic voice, exploring themes ranging from personal struggles to political conflicts, all crafted by directors with distinct perspectives.

April, directed by Dea Kulumbegashvili, delves deep into rural Georgian life, centering on the moral and emotional dilemmas faced by a doctor. Kulumbegashvili, a rising star in the film world, previously made waves with her debut Beginning (2020), which won the Fipresci Prize at Cannes. With April, she continues her exploration of personal resilience amidst societal rigidity, painting a vivid portrait of strength and morality.

In Christopher Andrews’ feature debut, Bring Them Down, the rugged beauty of rural Ireland serves as the backdrop for a fierce family feud. Starring Christopher Abbott (It Comes at Night...

"You wanna know how I got these scars?"

Joker: Folie À Deux is now in theaters, and while the ending of Todd Phillips' musical sequel has proven to be highly divisive (much like the rest of the movie), one particular moment has led to some speculation that the events of this film could connect to Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight.

Major spoilers follow.

Folie À Deux concludes with Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) returning to serve out his sentence in Arkham after initially going on the run following a car bomb explosion outside the courtroom. Fleck catches up with Lee Quinzel (Lady Gaga), but when she rejects him for renouncing his Joker persona, he allows the cops to take him back to the institution.

After being told that he has a visitor, Arthur makes his way down the corridor before being stopped by a clearly unstable young inmate played by Connor Storie,...

“Joker: Folie à Deux” is upon us.

The sequel to 2019’s Oscar-winning, R-rated “Joker” is a different beast altogether. As Arthur Fleck (a returning Joaquin Phoenix) awaits trial for the murders he committed in the first film, he falls in love with a fellow inmate (Lady Gaga) and finds himself drawn into a song-and-dance fantasy world.

But who returns for the sequel and what new characters are introduced? Read on to find out, with our complete “Joker: Folie à Deux” cast and character guide.

Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck in “Joker: Folie à Deux” (Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures) Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, Joker

Arthur Fleck is back. As introduced in the first film, he was a weakling who was pushed around by his abusive mother (Frances Conroy), who used to work for the Wayne family and claimed that Arthur was the illegitimate child of Thomas Wayne. (He was not.

The Thursday evening preview numbers are in for Joker: Folie à Deux and the latest DC movie made only $7 million. It's worth noting that the number also includes whatever the Joker sequel earned from Monday's early screenings across North America. 

This is a far cry from the 2019 movie which grossed $13.3 million on Thursday alone; from there, it made a record-breaking $96.2 million throughout its opening weekend. 

Tracking is all over the place for Joker: Folie à Deux, but a $50 million debut is a best-case scenario at this stage (it's currently looking likely to land somewhere between $48 million - $53 million).  

Making matters worse is the PostTrak score; we talk about CinemaScore a lot here but this is an exit polling service reporting audience demographics and the aspects of each title that trigger interest and attendance.

While not particularly well-known, it's an important tool used by studios and box office analysts and Joker: Folie à Deux...

While 2019's Joker clearly wasn't a movie overly concerned with adhering to the comic books, it did take place in a Gotham City with at least a few noteworthy ties to the DC Universe.

Chief among them was the presence of the Wayne family. The movie went to great lengths to make us - and Arthur Fleck - believe he might be the illegitimate son of Thomas Wayne (making him Bruce Wayne's half-brother). 

It was an intriguing idea but Arthur eventually learned his mother lied; however, Joker at least left some room for interpretation by making it possible that Thomas faked those adoption papers to hide his infidelity.

During Joker's final act, Arthur's actions inspire other criminals in Gotham to act out, including the man who guns down the young Bruce Wayne's parents in front of him. 

You'd think at least some of these ideas would be revisited in Joker: Folie à Deux,...

Unsurprisingly, Joker: Folie à Deux puts a unique, not particularly comic-accurate new spin on Harley Quinn Lee Quinzel. However, she's perhaps more in line with the source material than the trailers have let on.

When Arthur Fleck meets Lee, she claims that her mother had her locked up in Arkham Asylum and that she too grew up poor near where he lived. In reality, Lee went to grad school for psychiatry, lives with her wealthy parents, and chose to have herself committed so she could meet "Joker."

Arthur eventually confronts her and she claims to be pregnant; however, when that's brought up again later, all signs point to it being yet another lie from Lee.

When Arthur confesses at his trial that Joker is just a persona he created, she disowns him and leaves the courthouse. Encountering her after escaping, she's in a full face of smudged clown makeup, a harlequin-inspired costume,...

Joker featured only a few characters likely to be familiar to comic book fans, no great surprise when it was envisioned as a standalone tale about one man's descent into madness. 

Filmmaker Todd Phillips has gone on record to say Arthur Fleck was never meant to be the "Clown Prince of Crime" but Joker: Folie À Deux adds another familiar Gotham City villain to the mix with the introduction of Harvey Dent. 

Played by Harry Lawtey, Harvey is a District Attorney in the sequel and very confident about his chances of keeping Arthur/Joker behind bars. 

The comic book version of the character has multiple origin stories but the recurring theme is that he ends up being attacked in court, resulting in horrific scars which transform him into the deranged Batman rogue, Two-Face. 

Joker: Folie À Deux features a trial and the explosion which rocks the courtroom - believed...

When Joker: Folie À Deux premiered at the Venice Film Festival last month, there were plenty of rave reviews following a reported 11-minute standing ovation.

However, the sequel also hit Rotten Tomatoes with a slightly lower score than 2019's Joker, suggesting critics weren't quite as high on the follow-up to a movie which, despite being an awards success, was also no critical darling.

This week, things have only got worse for Joker: Folie À Deux. The movie's Rotten Tomatoes score has continued to decline as more verdicts have been counted and, as we write this, it sits at 39% based on 165 reviews.

Even more troubling is the fact fans have awarded it an awful 37% Audience Score on the new "Popcornmeter." This will do nothing to help Joker: Folie À Deux during a weekend that promises to be a wholly disappointing one.

The current Critics Consensus states, "Joaquin Phoenix's eponymous Joker...

Joker: Folie à Deux is now playing in theaters and, following Joker's box office and award success in 2019, Warner Bros. Discovery was banking on this sequel being every bit as successful.

As of now, that doesn't appear to be the case. Joker was meant to be a standalone story and, while there was speculation about an eventual follow-up perhaps pitting Arthur Fleck against a mentally broken Bruce Wayne who'd become a vengeful Batman, that always felt more like fan fiction than a realistic prospect.

The movie we're getting this weekend instead focuses on the twisted romance between Joker and Lee Quinzel/Harley Quinn, with musical numbers and an ending that's dividing fans.

Regardless of whether he goes out on a high or low, filmmaker Todd Phillips views Joker: Folie à Deux as the end of his stint in the DC Universe.

"It’s not really where this movie is headed for me,...

Joker: Folie à Deux arrives in theaters later today and the ending...well, it's one bound to generate a lot of debate and controversy among comic book fans. 

Throughout the course of the Joker sequel, Lady Gaga's Lee pushes Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) to become his "true" self, Joker. However, after a harrowing trial which sees the psychopath forced to reckon with his past actions, Arthur - dressed as Joker - reveals that the persona was just a fantasy and says he was the one who murdered those people. 

Lee is in equal parts heartbroken and horrified by this revelation and walks out of the courtroom along with Joker's many other supporters. When a verdict is later reached, a bomb goes off and Arthur is taken to freedom by two of his most devoted fanatics. 

He runs from them shortly after and reunites with Lee. He begs her to...

Director Todd Phillips returns with the highly anticipated sequel to his controversial 2019 Dceu adventure, Joker. The new film, Joker: Folie à Deux, brings back Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, the mentally disturbed criminal who becomes the Joker. Joining Phoenix is the iconic Lady Gaga (A Star is Born) as Harley Quinn, while Zazie Beetz reprises her role, albeit all too briefly, from the first movie. Irish actor Brendan Gleeson and Catherine Keener add gravitas to the cast.

Joker: Folie à Deux delves deeper into Arthur’s descent into madness, set against Gotham City’s criminal underworld. With a musical twist, Phoenix and Gaga share several striking performances together.

The story follows Arthur navigating life in Arkham Asylum five years after the first film’s events. His Joker persona becomes central to a legal battle where his lawyer (Keener) argues for his mental instability, while district attorney Harvey Dent seeks the death penalty.

Joker: Folie à Deux hit tracking three weeks ago and looked set to open with $70 million, a $26 million drop from 2019's Joker. That's still a respectable sum in the post-pandemic landscape, but those projections continue to drop...and drop.

The Hollywood Reporter reveals that the sequel could now open in North America with as little as $50 million, a disappointing start for a movie which the trade says "is expected to be a major player in the Oscars race."

Advance ticket sales have been lower than anticipated and, overseas, Warner Bros. Discovery is hoping Joker: Folie à Deux can debut with $80 million - $85 million (it doesn't arrive in China and Japan until several weeks from now).

Five years ago, Joker debuted with $96.2 million domestically and $155 million overseas, eventually earning what was then a record-breaking $1 billion when all was said and done at the worldwide box office.

The trade also confirms that,...

The review embargo for Todd Phillips' Joker: Folie À Deux lifted earlier this month shortly after the movie's world premier at the Venice Film Festival, but more critics have been weighing in with their thoughts on the DC Comics sequel today following a new round of press screenings.

The first Joker was widely praised by fans and recognized by several major awards bodies (including the Oscars), so it can be easy to forget that critics were far from won over upon its release. While some hailed the disturbing crime drama as a masterpiece, others felt that it was little more than a depressing slog that "ripped off" Martin Scorsese's earlier work.

Reactions to the sequel have been similarly mixed, but after settling at 63% (a similar score to its predecessor) on Rotten Tomatoes for the past couple of weeks, the film has now slipped down to a "Rotten" 56% on the aggregator.

There's been a lot of Dcu news over the past week from Lanterns casting to plans for animated Robin movie. It's almost as if DC Studios is trying to distract us from, say, an upcoming box office flop.

While it would be a tad unfair to put Joker: Folie à Deux in that category at such a early stage, this weekend isn't shaping up to be a particularly good one for the sequel.

According to Deadline, the DC Comics adaptation is eying a $55 million - $60 million opening in North America and a worldwide bow of $140 million. Those numbers aren't too bad on the surface but when compared to 2019's Joker, they look far less impressive.

Five years ago, that movie opened with $96.2 million, blowing past $80 million projections. It also exceeded expectations internationally to beat its $155 million forecast with over $248 million worldwide.

Reviews for Joker: Folie à Deux haven't been as...

Screenings of Joker: Folie À Deux have begun and, if what we've seen on social media is any indication, the response from fans thus far is mixed at best.

It's always best to make your own mind up, though, and if you do plan on heading to theaters in the next few days, we're guessing you want to know if there's anything worth waiting for once the Joker sequel's credits roll.

Well, we can tell you that no, Joker: Folie À Deux does not have any mid or post-credits scenes. When the movie ends, that's it, though you can always stick around to see the names of everyone who worked on the DC Comics adaptation.

It's not overly surprising that there are no hints or teases for the future. That was the case with Joker in 2019 and filmmaker Todd Phillips has already confirmed he won't be back for a third movie.

One of the biggest movies of the fall is upon us. Director Todd Phillips has reunited with star Joaquin Phoenix for another dark tale in the DC Universe in the form of "Joker: Folie à Deux," aka "Joker 2." This serves as a follow-up to 2019's "Joker," which became a massive $1 billion success for Warner Bros. and DC. Whether or not the sequel matches the insanely high heights of the original remains to be seen. Another big question: does Phillips set up more to come with Arthur Fleck? Is there a post-credits scene that fans need to be aware of?

The first "Joker" did not do the typical comic book movie thing as there was no credits scene attached. Phillips said what he wanted to say before the credits began rolling. Then again, at that time, nobody knew just how big of a success this take on the famed Batman villain was going to be.

Joker: Folie À Deux had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month, but the movie's LA premier took place last night, and Variety caught up with director Todd Phillips on the red carpet to ask him about a potential spin-off focusing on Lady Gaga's "Lee Quinzel."

Phillips has previously made it clear that this sequel wraps-up Arthur Fleck's (Joaquin Phoenix) story, and that he wouldn't have much interest in returning for a third movie. But what about Miss Quinn?

Major spoilers follow.

When it comes to Gaga's take on Harley Quinn, the door is definitely left open for her to return and take the lead in a future film - while also carrying on the Joker's legacy. Yes, we find out that Lee is carrying Arthur's child towards the end of the movie.

Phillips became a little flustered when asked if there were any plans...

Netflix has announced that production commenced today on the highly anticipated Peaky Blinders movie, an epic continuation of the multi-award-winning gangster saga, set in the lawless streets of Birmingham in the 1900s.

Cillian Murphy reprises his role as the iconic Tommy Shelby in the film written by the show’s creator, Steven Knight, who produces alongside Patrick Holland, Cillian Murphy, and Guy Heeley. The film will be made in association with BBC Film.

Photo courtesy of Netflix

“I’m thrilled to see the cameras rolling on this new chapter of the Peaky Blinders story, set during World War II. The country is at war, and so, of course, are our Peaky Blinders,” said writer and producer Steven Knight.

Director Tom Harper added: “There’s a great feeling of anticipation and excitement amongst our outstanding cast and crew. We’re grateful to the fans for getting us to this point and...