Joaquin Phoenix is receiving a massive payday for his return in the upcoming Joker sequel.
After several years of rumors, director Todd Phillips shared a photo of the script for Joker: Folie à deux with Joaquin Phoenix reading it. 2019’s Joker earned Phoenix his first Oscar, and despite never signing a multi-picture deal, he’s expected to return for the follow-up, which is reportedly a musical.
A report said Joaquin Phoenix was nearing a massive deal to return as the Joker. Lady Gaga is also in talks to play Harley Quinn in the film. Variety has now revealed that Phoenix will earn $20 million after making $4.5 million for the first Joker film.
What Other Stars Are Making
Variety‘s article also revealed that Tom Hardy would be paid $20 million for the next Venom film, Dwayne Johnson took home $22.5 million for Black Adam, and Jason Momoa received $15 million for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Tom Cruise topped the list of celebrities after the massive success of Top Gun: Maverick, earning $100 million.
Here is the official synopsis for Joker:
Director Todd Phillips’ “Joker” centers around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone fictional story not seen before on the big screen. Phillips’ exploration of Arthur Fleck, who is indelibly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, is of a man struggling to find his way in Gotham’s fractured society. A clown-for-hire by day, he aspires to be a stand-up comic at night…but finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes one bad decision that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events in this gritty character study.
Directed by Todd Phillips from a script he co-wrote with Scott Silver, 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.
Joker is available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital. Stay tuned for all the latest news on the sequel, and subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for more original video content.
Source: Variety
