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One debated real-life detail in director Martin Scorsese's Netflix gangster movie gets addressed by an expert who gave it a perfect accuracy score. What's notable about the crime movies Scorsese has made over the decades is that many of them pull from real-world events, dramatizing them in lengthy stories that maintain their realism. This includes the true story of Killers of the Flower Moon, which, while slightly embellished for the sake of the adaptation's plot, contains key information about the Osage murders in the 1920s.

However, some of Scorsese's best movies have been crime films involving gangsters, with one of the director's most-recognized movies being the 1990 biopic Goodfellas. The gangster movie was one of his many collaborations with actor Robert De Niro, who starred in 10 movies across the director's career. This includes movies from before the gangster film, like Taxi Driver and King of Comedy, to later entries like Cape Fear and Casino.

If you’re familiar with Malaysian cinema, “The Good Loan Sharks” is nothing short of an all-star event. For those less familiar with the local stardom, this musical slash buddy-film is directed by Datuk (“Sir”) Afdlin Shauki, a multi-talented (acid jazz) musician turned late show presenter and actor, already well-established as filmmaker with movies like the bittersweet series “Papadom” (2009) or the improbable “Sumolah” (2007). While he is often playing central roles on his opus, this time he takes on a smaller part as Lan Panda, the ultimate loan shark, to make way for the famous comedic duo Johan and Zizan, collectively known as Jozan. Having made their name in the reality stand-up show Raja Lawak (“King of Comedy”) and its follow-up, the film serves as a vehicle to showcase their duet. Alongside them is Liyana Jasmay, a former TV drama child star, cosmetics brand ambassador and two-time Best Actress winner at the Malaysian Film Festival,...

While 2019 saw the monumental success of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019) becoming the highest grossing movie of all time, it was a spinoff of the iconic Batman villain that became the most profitable film of that year with its miniscule budget of $65 million being matched with a worldwide run of over $1.07 billion. ‘Joker’ (2019) was the talk of the cinema community as it was the first r- rated comic book film to receive such attention and profit and has since been in the minds of cinema enthusiasts and normal movie goers alike. As any successful movie goes in modern times, a sequel had to come and it did this past weekend with ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ (2024). With Todd Phillips returning as the director and Joaquin Phoenix reprising his role as the titular character, we see another venture into a far more real and depressing look at Gotham than any other interpretation of it has shown.

Paul Schrader is the latest “Joker: Folie à Deux” critic.

The auteur seemingly couldn’t find any semblance of his “Taxi Driver” or Martin Scorsese’s “King of Comedy” in “Joker: Folie à Deux,” despite director Todd Phillips saying both inspired the Oscar-winning first film, 2019’s “Joker.” Frequent Schrader collaborator Scorsese also executive produced “Joker” but did not return for the sequel.

Schrader told Interview magazine, while in discussion with Jeremy O. Harris, that he couldn’t even sit in the theater for “Folie à Deux” past a (non-consecutive) 25 minutes.

“I see who’s coming up. I go to the multiplex,” Schrader said of his pastimes when not writing and directing. “I saw ‘Joker: Folie à Deux.’ I saw about 10 or 15 minutes of it. I left, bought something, came back, saw another 10 minutes. That was enough.”

He added that “Folie à Deux” is a “really bad musical.”

In fact, Schrader...

“Joker: Folie à Deux” was primed to be another twisted comic book smash. Instead, the sequel to 2019’s billion-dollar hit “Joker” is a box office disaster.

So far, the offbeat musical about Batman’s notorious foe has grossed $51.5 million domestically and $165 million globally after two weeks of release. By comparison, the first “Joker” had generated $96.2 million domestically and $248.4 million globally after three days of release. The sequel won’t earn anywhere near that much by the end of its theatrical run, with ticket sales projected to stall at a lifetime gross of $65 million domestically and $210 million to $215 million globally when “Folie à Deux” leaves the big screen.

That’s a huge problem because “Joker 2” cost $200 million to produce and roughly $100 million to market and distribute. At this rate, the film won’t get anywhere close to the $450 million needed to break even in its theatrical run (ticket sales are...

The Penguin Shares First Look at Shazam!’s Mark Strong as Young Carmine Falcone - Main Image

Gangster Carmine Falcone was one of the key figures in The Batman, and he was played by character actor John Turturro to great effect.

Though Falcone may be dead by the time The Penguin’s story rolls around, it looks like he’ll be having a presence in the upcoming series—but he’ll be played by another actor; what’s more, it’s someone who was a main rival in a Dceu movie.

Mark Strong Takes Over Carmine Falcone

For the Penguin series, Mark Strong is going to be taking over the role of the boss of the Falcone crime family. Here’s a first look at him in costume:

For context, here’s how Turturro played Falcone in the movie:

Though Strong is expected to play a younger version of Falcone,...

"You can do anything you want. You're Joker."

We're now just a few weeks away from the theatrical debut of Joker: Folie À Deux, and Warner Bros. has released a final trailer featuring quite a bit of new footage along with some of the praise that's been heaped upon the film since the review embargo lifted last week.

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 Taxi Driver and King of Comedy.

Reactions to the sequel have been similarly mixed (though its Rotten Tomatoes score has since risen to 63%), so it'll be very interesting to see...

“All you have to do,” says author Shawn Levy, who wrote King of Comedy, the definitive Jerry Lewis biography, is to give the plot summary. “If you just tell people: Jerry Lewis wrote, directed and starred in a drama about a clown in a concentration camp leading children into the gas chambers, people say: ‘What? How have I never heard of this movie, how have I never seen it?’ “

You haven’t seen the film, The Day the Clown Cried. No one has. Jerry Lewis shot it in 1972, but it was never released. And it never will be. It is one of the last white whales of lost cinema, like Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune or Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind, except Jodorowsky never got to shoot a single frame of his Arrakis epic. And Welles’ opus was eventually finished, 48 years later, thanks to Netflix money. It screened...

The Batman: The Penguin Spinoff Episode Titles and Runtimes Revealed - Main Image

It would be a while before fans got to see Robert Pattinson return as Batman on the big screen, but HBO is giving a chance for another character from the franchise to shine—specifically Colin Farrell’s Penguin.

The Penguin is set to premiere next month, and many fans are curious about exactly what to expect from a Gotham show without Batman. The main plot for the series has been kept under wraps, but some new details have emerged for the first episode.

The Penguin: First Episodes Get Titles and Runtimes

Thanks to @Cryptic4KQual, fans have details on the series' first four episodes. The first season is expected to have eight episodes.

For context, the title of the fourth episode, “Cent’Anni” is a traditional Italian toast, which translates to, “May you live for a hundred years.

Even a quarter-century later, box office victory still tastes sweet for Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal.

Reminiscing about their 1999 collaboration, Analyze This, during a Tribeca Festival / De Niro Con screening Friday, the pair swapped memories of sitting at De Niro’s former restaurant, Ago, on the Friday night the film opened..

Analyze This faced younger-skewing competition in Cruel Intentions, the Sarah Michelle Gellar/Reese Witherspoon/Ryan Philippe thriller, but came out decisively ahead. “The box office was coming in, and it was like, ‘Oh my God. Oh my God. We’re crushing them!'” Crystal remembered. “It was one of the great nights of my life, to share this with this man, that we made this movie together and loved working...

Just like the music industry has Michael Jackson as its King of Rock, the film industry has Adam Sandler, who arguably carries the title of King of Comedy. Being the perfect embodiment of comedic entertainment, Adam Sandler probably already came out of the womb making jokes, and there seems to be no end in sight. Having risen to prominence through his role on Saturday Night Live in the early 1990s, Sandler has been an established actor for over three decades.

With an impressively long list of well-known projects connected to his name, his fans have started to analyze some of his most famous films. After digging deep and connecting the dots, a striking conclusion was formed. Lovingly calling their theory the Adam Sandler Cinematic Universe, the actor's fans are convinced that he has secretly been working on his Sandlerverse for the past 30 years. From running gags and returning characters to numerous references and hilarious connections,...

Stephen Chow (aka Chow Sing-chi) has struck a deal with Douyin, the Chinese sister company of TikTok, to produce a slate of mini-drama series for mainland China audiences.

Mini dramas are a form of professionally-generated content that has become hugely popular in China, and to a lesser extent in other parts of Asia. Series typically have 20-100 episodes of 1-15 minutes each, though just a couple of minutes is typical. This makes them easily digestible and suitable for casual consumption on mobile devices. The most popular genres are comedy and romantic drama and many are derived from web novels.

In a statement on Douyin’s WeChat social media feed, the company said that Chow’s first series project is called “Jinzhu Yuye” and is currently a work-in-progress that could be delivered by May. He is understood to be working with other creators.

Hong Kong-based writer-director-producer Chow was in his heyday...

Martin Scorsese’s 27 narrative feature films range from beloved gangster titles, to a bold religious trilogy, to popcorn thrillers, to dark character portraits. Picking and ranking his 10 best? A list is “wrong” before it even begins (except, perhaps, for No. 1, which might be an inarguable choice). So much depends on which version of Scorsese is most valued by the chooser. Do you revere Scorsese’s breakout 1970s films? His more mainstream 21st century hits? Do you find his religious films moving or a snooze?

Here’s the perspective of this particular list: Scorsese is at his best when his masterful technique is married with compelling characters and propulsive storytelling. Some of the Catholic-raised director’s titles (such as Silence, Taxi Driver and his latest, Killers of the Flower Moon) force moviegoers to endure a cinematic penance that echoes the journey of his tormented protagonists. They evoke that eternal debate between...

In a new TikTok video that went viral late Thursday, “Killers of the Flower Moon” director Martin Scorsese was tasked by his daughter, the actress and filmmaker Francesca Scorsese, with defining some online slang – and defended his 1983 film “The King of Comedy” in the process.

In the playful video, one of many that Francesca Scorsese has posted alongside her Oscar-winning father, Martin Scorsese is asked to define terms like “ship,” “simp,” and “hits different.” When Francesca Scorsese asks her dad to define “slept on,” she uses “The King of Comedy” as an example to provide context.

“People hated it when it came out,” Martin Scorsese said in response. “It was the flop of the year. That’s what it was called on ‘Entertainment Tonight.’ On New Year’s Eve ’83-’84. It’s okay, it’s alright.”

@francescascorsese

He lowkey slayed. #fyp #martinscorsese #dadsoftiktok #dadguesses

♬ original sound – Francesca

“The King of Comedy...

Sure, Donald Glover tapped into his own cringe hook-up encounters for “Swarm,” but he also looked to films “King of Comedy” and “The Piano Teacher” for the unhinged Prime Video series.

“Bro, we steal everything. Anything that works, we will take it. I’ll leave it at that,” Glover told Vulture.

“Swarm” centers around super fan Dre (Dominique Fishback) and her bloodthirsty obsession and subsequent devotion to a pop star.

Surprisingly, it was Isabelle Huppert’s haunting performance in Michael Haneke’s 2001 drama “The Piano Teacher” that inspired Glover to craft the role of Dre. Huppert plays a piano instructor who partakes in self-mutilation and has a voyeuristic sadomasochistic affair with her student, played by Benoît Magimel.

“Isabelle Huppert in ‘The Piano Teacher’ was the most interesting character study I’d seen in a minute. Me and my brother were like, ‘Well, who is that now? Who’s a young version of that?...

It was green slime galore at Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards which was hosted by Nate Burleson and Charli D’Amelio. Kids and adults celebrated the best of pop culture at L.A. Live’s Microsoft Theater for the annual event where the winners receive an orange blimp.

Related: Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards Complete Winners List

Some of the stars that were seen walking on the orange carpet included Nickelodeon veteran Miranda Cosgrove, Bebe Rexha, Halle Bailey, Heidi Klum, Kelly Rowland, That Girl Lay Lay, Case Walker, Landon Barker, Luke Islam, Pierson Wodzynski, Lilly Singh, and even Tariq, known as “Corn Kid.” Scroll through the photo gallery below to see the looks of the orange carpet.

During the slimy night, Adam Sandler received a special Silver Blimp and was named the King of Comedy. The comedian actor came on stage in a throne and was then slimed with the gooey...

The nation is in disbelief with the passing of one of its most influential comics, Raju Srivastava. As people from different walks of life mourn the comedian-actor-politician’s death, Ians looks back at the time when the then-unknown artiste took up small roles in films, including a couple of blockbusters, where his presence was almost missed. All this was years before he made his mark on India’s entertainment canvas with his body of work that spans stand-up comedy and television gigs.

Tezaab (1988): It’s this Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit-starrer film in which Srivastava played the character of an extra. He, however, went unnoticed in the film, which boasted of a huge star cast. But the future ‘King of Comedy’ hung in there and soon got his second film which was released the following year.

Maine Pyar Kiya (1989): Srivastava then featured in ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’ which...

The well-known actor, comedian, TV host and dancer Jaaved Jaaferi spoke about late ‘King of Comedy’ Raju Srivastava. What made him popular was his very earthy and deeply rooted comedy, Jaaferi said.

He said: “I knew Raju because when he started off his career, he was doing small stage shows. At that point I was impressed. He was a simple guy, but his humour was very earthy, very Indian rooted, coming from a small town, but catering to a very wider Indian sensibility. Not only on shows, but wherever he stood among the people, he used to make them laugh.”

Jaaved has been part of several TV shows and movies. He also dubbed animated series like ‘Mickey Mouse’, ‘Goofy’ and ‘Don Karnage’ in Hindi and also hosted award shows like Filmfare and others.

He recalled looking at Raju’s performance in the dance competition series ‘Boogie Woogie’ which was judged by him.

The Indian comedy galactic cluster lost its brightest star in the form of Raju Shrivastav, who passed away around 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday at Aiims, New Delhi. Srivastava’s journey to become one of the most widely recognised Indian comedians was rife with struggles and reinventions as an artiste and as a person.

Raju was born in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, to a government employee and poet, Ramesh Chandra Srivastava, and homemaker, Saraswati Srivastava. Named Satya Prakash Srivastava at birth, Raju harboured the dream of becoming a comic artiste since his childhood and he moved to Mumbai in the 1980s to give a definitive shape to his dream.

He initially struggled to get work because comedy was a new art form for the mainstream back then. To make ends meet, Raju started driving an auto-rickshaw but kept his passion alive by performing in stand-up shows for a measly sum of...

Kirsten Howard Dec 4, 2019

We live in a society that will be able to buy and own the Joker movie.

Todd Phillips was a pretty odd choice to direct Joker for Warner Bros. Despite having a background planted largely in broad comedies like The Hangover Trilogy, his standalone DC movie wasn't exactly expected to be packed with laughs, but his Clown Prince of Crime, Joaquin Phoenix, was coming in off the back of a string of excellent dramatic performances. What could Phillips and Phoenix do with a problematic character that had already been so deftly played by the late Heath Ledger just a decade and change ago?

Quite a lot, objectively. The film found its fan base straight away. Critics raved and rolled their eyes in equal measure, and the internet's pre-release rage against the movie ended up doing a lot of its marketing for it. Joker ended up taking away...

Awards season is long, and people are (already) tired, which is why it’s so refreshing when a contender breaks character along the way to show a little humanity. That’s exactly what happened at Friday night’s AFI Fest conversation with Martin Scorsese in Los Angeles, when “The Irishman” director, humbled by being so exalted across tribute clip-shows and heaping praise, soothed the room as the lights went down and told the audience, “Just try to relax and enjoy the movie.”

The Q&a began as American Film Institute president and CEO Bob Gazzale asked the audience to ponder a world where Scorsese never existed. “We would be less in touch with ourselves, and each other. Less human. We would be less,” he said. “It is, in short, unimaginable. Now wake up from this George Bailey nightmare, for he is risen: The young boy who aspired to become a priest,...

Director Teng Congcong studied filmmaking at the Beijing Film Academy under the likes of legendary director Xie Fie, eventually getting her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Directing from the prestigious institute. Winning a number of awards for her short films, she makes her feature film debut with “Send Me to the Clouds“, a film which examines the current position of educated independent women born in the era of China’s “One Child Policy” through the story of a journalist suffering from ovarian cancer.

The film is making waves since its release, not least for its chief theme of the female desire for sex in China’s conservative society. After screening in quite a few domestic film festivals and having had a limited release in North America last month, the film is now ready for a wider Festival run, with director Teng Congcong making an appearance to talk about...

Exclusive: Amid concerns about potential violent situations, the opening weekend of Warner Bros’ controversial Joker in New York City will see an increased police presence both in and out of uniform.

Earlier this week, the NYPD’s Chief of Patrol Rodney Harrison told officers that the department plans to visibly station cops at theaters showing the Joaquin Phoenix-starring film. Now Deadline has learned that a significant undercover detachment will also be deployed to make sure nothing untoward occurs inside cinemas in Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island.

“This is 360-degree policing approach to ensure safety for ticket buyers in their seats, as well as on the streets,” a law enforcement official said of the strategy to have plain-clothed police in a number of theaters in America’s largest city starting with the October 3 previews and throughout the expected heavily attended weekend. “If something happens inside one of the screenings,...

“Joker” arrives in theaters this weekend following weeks of polarizing festival reviews and a pre-release backlash that included fears the film may inspire violence. But despite all that, box office analysts expect Todd Phillips’ Scorsese-inspired supervillain origin story to set a new opening weekend record for October.

The current record for the month was set last year by another comic book movie, Sony’s “Venom,” which earned an $80.2 million launch. That figure is the low end of independent tracker projections for Warner Bros./Village Roadshow/DC’s “Joker,” which currently range from $80-95 million. An opening in the middle of that range would put the movie alongside “Logan,” another R-rated superhero drama which opened to $88 million in March 2017.

Warner Bros. is projecting that “Joker” will fall just short of “Venom” with $75-80 million from 4,300+ screens, but even if the film fell well short and opened in the $60 million range — which...

Tony Sokol Oct 8, 2019

With the arrival of Joker, we examine one of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro's most underrated movies, The King of Comedy.

Joker pays homage to the classics. Tributes are often a polite word for artistic theft and at least one trailer has the heroic villain stealing a timeless line from the British comedian Bob Monkhouse. “Everyone laughed when I said I was going to be a comedian, but nobody’s laughing now.” Such is the dichotomy of dark comedy, some of the best laughter gets caught in the throat. It looks like Joker might have stolen more than a joke though from Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy. He may have made off with the conclusion, which was up for grabs anyway.

Todd Phillips’ upcoming Batman-adjacent origin movie provides a twisted alternative universe to Scorsese's celebrity nightmare classic. The new film features Robert De...

We are less than a week away from the world being exposed to Todd Phillips’ latest film, “Joker.” After all the controversy and all the discussion about the comic book film, fans will finally get a chance to see “Joker” for themselves and decide what to think. Is the film going to cause worldwide panic? Is the controversy just all hot air and not really relevant? On Friday, everyone can find out for themselves.

Continue reading Robert De Niro Talks ‘Joker’ Controversy & Says The Film Is Different Than ‘Taxi Driver’ & ‘King Of Comedy’ at The Playlist.

Todd Phillips’ R-rated DC villain movie Joker arrived on tracking today with an indexed first choice among all audiences in the low 20s among moviegoers that exceeded a mix of both superhero movies and R-rated fare including Batman v. Superman, Suicide Squad, It, It Chapter Two, Logan, Venom, Halloween, Us, John Wick Chapter 3 and more. That’s a huge number and speaks to Warner Bros.’ cool, hip positioning of this very dark take on the most notorious villain in the Batman canon, plus the great critical momentum that Joker has accumulated coming out of the fall film festival season, winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, notching a 78% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score out of Tiff along with Joaquin Phoenix solidifying himself as the leading best actor contender this awards season.

All of this suggests an average opening of $90M off one B.O. projection service’s report, which...

If you’d bet on Todd Phillips ever winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, you’d have made lots of money. If you’d bet on Todd Phillips winning the Golden Lion for Joker, you’d now be Bruce Wayne.

And Arthur Fleck – soon to be the Joker – wouldn’t like that very much. Joaquin Phoenix plays the wannabe stand-up comic in this origin story of the most iconic villain in the superhero world. Predictably Fleck serves as the heart and soul, which attempts to be a thorough study of how someone can grow (or sink) to become Gotham City’s greatest cosplaying criminal menace.

This psychopath origin story structure is one of the numerous ways Joker tries to invoke the films of Martin Scorsese, who was initially attached to the project as a producer. But only in style is it at all a resemblance of the work of Scorsese.

R.E.M. will mark the 25th anniversary of their 1994 LP Monster with a deluxe six-disc reissue that boasts unreleased demos, a 1995 concert recording and a “2019 remix” of the original album.

Due out November 1st and available to pre-order now, the Monster reissue boasts 15 unheard demo recordings as well as producer Scott Litt’s new remix of the album, which scales back the guitar sound to focus on Michael Stipe’s vocals; hear the “2019 remix” version of “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” below:

“The original 1994 version was dense in guitars...

With Joker being lauded by viewers after the film's screening at the Venice Film Festival, director Todd Phillips has discussed further the 70's influences and inspirations that have led to this quite different take on the Clown Prince of Crime, as well as a quite different comic book movie altogether.

While speaking at the Venice Film Festival press conference, Phillips opened up once again about the character study ideals that he wanted to replicate with Joker. Taking his cues from such old school flicks as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and, quite clearly, The King of Comedy, Phillips has taken more than a page from Martin Scorsese's book to create his R-rated DC film.

"There's a ton of specific inspirations we had for this movie. Taxi Driver, obviously, is one of my favorite movies, but it's not directly that. I think it's more a time period of movies."

These time...

DC Comics fans got a little surprise on Sunday when the Instagram account for the upcoming movie “Joker” posted a half-dozen short videos with a strange message inside.

The clips were largely from the first trailer and included Joaquin Phoenix parading around in his full Joker makeup and regalia, his pre-Joker self climbing into the fridge in despair, and Robert De Niro playing a late night comedy host in a nod to Jerry Lewis’ role in “King of Comedy.”

In each clip, there’s a single frame of what appears to be white scratches akin to damaged film. When placed together, the scratches form a message that reveals that a new trailer for “Joker” will be released this Wednesday.

Also Read: 'Joker': Joaquin Phoenix's Dark Clown Makes Sadistic Debut at CinemaCon

Check out the clips below, and pay close attention to the quick flashes in each one.

View this post...

The Cinema Audio Society revealed that they will honor Oscar and Emmy-winning Sound Mixer Tom Fleischman, Cas with the Cas Career Achievement Award, the organization’s highest accolade. Fleischman will be presented with the honor at the 56th Cas Awards which will take place January 25, 2020, at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown.

“I am delighted to announce the selection of Tom Fleischman by the Cas for our Career Achievement Honoree at this year’s 56th Annual Cas Awards,” said Cas President Karol Urban. “Tom is a world-renowned sound mixer with a portfolio of over 190 films and over 20 television projects.”

She continued, “It is hard to be a fan of the small or large screen without having experienced the work of this talented sound artist. Whether collaborating with Martin Scorsese or mixing rare footage of some of the world’s most renowned musical artists, Tom is a powerhouse professionally as well as...

Exclusive: With Cannes in the rear-view mirror, film industry attention is now turning to the autumn festivals and what titles are shaping up as the ones we’ll be talking about throughout awards season. Having steadily cemented its status as the go-to fall launchpad for awards hopefuls, including three of the last five Best Picture Oscar winners, the Venice Film Festival is currently putting together its 2019 lineup, with the highly-anticipated reveal set for July 25.

From Joker to Roman Polanski to The Irishman and Ad Astra, chatter is increasing over what may or may not show up on the Lido from August 28-September 7.

Premiering a comic book movie at a major film festival would be a bold move, but we hear that Joker is sitting out ComicCon in favor of a fall springboard which just might be Venice. Warner Bros unveiled footage of the Todd Phillips-directed DC origins story at...

Contemporary Chinese Cinema is a column devoted to exploring contemporary Chinese-language cinema primarily as it is revealed to us at North American multiplexes.When I reviewed this year’s crop of Lunar New Year releases a couple of months ago, there was one title that was conspicuously missing from the group of films that were released in North America for the holiday season: Stephen Chow’s The New King of Comedy. I don’t know why it didn’t get a release here. It could be because its production was too rapid for the international distribution system to absorb it. It might have something to do with the involvement of Herman Yau, an outspoken proponent of democracy in Hong Kong and thus an unwelcome presence on the Mainland. Or, it may have just been overlooked in the mad rush to book The Wandering Earth on as many screens as possible...

From “Mean Streets” to their upcoming “The Irishman,” Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese have one of film’s most famous (and long-running) actor/director partnerships.

The two talked about their decades of work together at the Tribeca Film Festival (which De Niro co-founded) on Sunday afternoon, touching on the dynamics of their partnership, Scorsese’s hesitance to take on certain projects and even another frequent collaborator: Leonardo DiCaprio, who happened to be in the audience for the chat at the Beacon Theater.

See highlights from the two’s wide-ranging talk below.

‘Raging Bull’ Almost Didn’t Happen

Scorsese was hesitant about and “overwhelmed” by “Raging Bull,” their 1980 boxing biopic, from the start. The director explained that he didn’t “understand boxing,” and had to realize that it was really about the athlete himself, Jake Lamotta (played by De Niro), rather than the sport. But that wasn’t the only...

Martin Scorsese’s longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker may not want moviegoers to think the director’s upcoming gangster drama “The Irishman” is anything like his genre classic “Goodfellas,” but producer Jane Rosenthal says the two Scorsese movies do share a wicked sense of dark humor. Rosenthal, who is also the co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival, tells Variety the humor in “The Irishman” is one reason moviegoers will want to see the film in theaters and not settle for streaming it on Netflix.

“There will be some sort of theatrical component,” Rosenthal said of the movie. “You have to have that. It’s a different experience than watching it at home. In a theater, you may start to laugh at something because the people next to you are laughing — and ‘The Irishman’ is very funny, much like ‘Goodfellas’ was funny.”

Rosenthal continued, “Marty is a genius in the way his shots move.

Yesterday saw the premiere of the first trailer for the upcoming DC superhero film “Joker.” However, to call it a “superhero film” is a bit silly, considering it’s clearly aiming to be an R-rated psychological thriller featuring nary a hero to be found. Alas, it is a film that takes place in Gotham (where Batman resides), so yeah, it’s a superhero film. But, what it most definitely isn’t is a sequel to Martin Scorsese’s “The King of Comedy.” As actor Robert De Niro explains, that doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t some homage in Todd Phillips’ film.

Continue reading Robert De Niro Talks ‘Joker’ & Says He Would Have Discussed Reprising His ‘King Of Comedy’ Role For The DC Film at The Playlist.

Robert De Niro has confirmed that there is a connection between Joker and Martin Scorsese's 1982 movie The King of Comedy. The first trailer for Todd Phillips' version of the Clown Prince of Crime's origin story dropped earlier today and it showcased Joaquin Phoenix becoming unhinged. It also featured the brief appearance of De Niro's Murray Franklin character, who is a TV show host and something that his character in King of Comedy wanted very badly.

Before the Joker trailer was released, DC released the first poster for the movie too. Eagle-eyed cinema fans were able to spot that Joaquin Phoenix is wearing the same jacket that Robert De Niro's Rupert Pupkin character wears in The King Comedy. In the movie, De Niro's Pupkin is a psychopathic comic who is obsessed with a TV host, which is already pretty similar to Joker. De Niro had this to say about the connection.

The first footage of Joaquin Phoenix’s “Joker” premiered during the Warner Bros. panel at CinemaCon and quickly set the film world ablaze on social media. The October tentpole stars Phoenix as the iconic Batman villain, who has previously been played on the big screen by Jack Nicholson, Jared Leto, and Heath Ledger. The latter won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his Joker performance in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight.” Now comes Phoenix’s turn as the character, who in “Joker” is portrayed as a failed stand up comedian who gets seduced into Gotham’s criminal underworld in the early 1980s.

Appearing at CinemaCon, director Todd Phillips described the film as an “origin story about a beloved character with no definitive origin” and said the genre of the film is “tragedy.” Phillips was adamant that he is still shaping the film and said a lot of the reporting...

Warner Bros was so, so serious today and unveiled the trailer to Todd Phillips’ R-rated Joker here to CinemaCon audiences before the world could see. “If anyone should get a first look at Joker, it’s the exhibitors,” said Phillips.

Phillips said the film is “still taking shape.” But he noted that there has been online chatter about “what the film is and isn’t” and “most of it hasn’t been very accurate. I guess that’s what happens when you set out to do an origin story about a character that doesn’t have a definitive origin.”

The trailer will drop tomorrow but it’s truly an homage to Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and King of Comedy. A huge love letter to ’70s fare in how NYC is painted and the colors used on screen, yellows and earth tones. The pic opens on October 4.

Phillips said the...

Shortly after releasing the sequel of one of his beloved movies, 1999’s “King of Comedy”, director, actor and producer Stephen Chow wowed his fans again, officially confirming the rumors of a long awaited follow-up of his 2004’s cult movie “Kung Fu Hustle”.

Chow broke the news while promoting his latest film The “New King Of Comedy” at an audience Q&A in Guangzhou, Hong Kong. Submerged by questions about it, Chow revealed only few details like that it will be set in a foreign country and in modern times. He added that it would not be a proper sequel but something similar. When asked is he will act in the film too, Chow remained vague revealing that he will definitely not play the lead role, but maybe a cameo.

14 years ago the original movie grossed $102 million against a $20 million budget, earning six Hong Kong Film Awards and five Golden Horse Awards.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSStephen Chow and Tsui Hark.Stephen Chow is currently filming King of Comedy 2, the sequel to his 1999 hit King of Comedy (about the blunders and tribulations of an aspiring actor). It is set to be released early 2019, during Chinese New Year. In the same article, China Film Insider also reports that master filmmaker Tsui Hark is mounting an epic Wuxia trilogy entitled Return of The Condor Heroes, based off of the first Wuxia novel he ever read.Grasshopper Film has announced its first music release, a compilation of tracks from the films of Bertrand Bonello: Nocturama, Saint Laurent, and House of Intolerance. Only 500 copies of the vinyl record are available for order here. Recommended VIEWINGThe first arresting trailer for Claire Denis' High Life is here, and it does not disappoint. You can...

After sharing photos of Joaquin Phoenix both in and out of makeup this week, Todd Phillips has offered a similar look at Zazie Beetz from his upcoming Joker movie. Interest in the untitled project has swirled since the first two pictures surfaced, with many speculating that this iteration of Batman’s arch-nemesis is a failed stand-up comic — especially following the casting of Robert De Niro, who’s said to be playing an inversion of his “King of Comedy” character.

Phillips offered the following rationale for releasing the photos more than a year before the film arrives in theaters: “Here’s the issue. We have paparazzi all over our set, at every turn. And it bums me out that they constantly put out their bad shots. So I figure, may as well put out some good ones.” Beetz is said to be playing Sophie Dumond, the love interest of Arthur — Joker...

Todd Phillips, the director of the upcoming Joker origin film, posted a camera test of Joaquin Phoenix Friday on Instagram. Phoenix plays the infamous villain in the currently untitled movie, which is slated to hit theaters on Oct. 4, 2019.

In the video, Phoenix appears as “Arthur,” until his face is interspersed with images of him as the Joker. The camera gradually pulls in closer and we only see him as the grinning villain, with his signature white face and red lips. The video, set to “Laughing” by the Canadian band The Guess Who, ends when his expression suddenly falls.

Phillips posted a photo on Sunday of Phoenix dressed up in a button-up shirt and jacket, with the caption: “Arthur.” This is likely the Joker’s name before he adopts his current moniker.

Phillips, who co-wrote the script with Scott Silver, said the film is meant to be an “exploration of a...

As more information comes to light regarding Todd Phillips’ Joker origin film, it’s becoming pretty apparent that it won’t be your typical comic book movie. For one, we’re not chronicling the journey of a hero here, but rather, we’ll be seeing an original take on the beginnings of the Clown Prince of Crime. It’s always fascinating to watch how an average Joe becomes the most vile person imaginable, and Phillips’ upcoming effort promises to give us just that.

Now that filming’s underway, set photos are starting to come in thick and fast and that continues today with a new batch courtesy of Just Jared. Seemingly taken from the same scene as the ones we saw earlier this week, front and center here is Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, a man “disregarded by society.” He’ll be anchoring this dark and brooding crime saga alongside Robert De Niro,...

You’ve seen the photos and likely gawked at Joaquin Phoenix’s bad guy bob, but it’s now time for Warner Bros. to announce its full ensemble cast for Joker.

Front and center is Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, a man “disregarded by society.” He anchors this dark and brooding crime saga alongside Robert De Niro, who plays a smug and popular talk show host desperate for fame.

Fleck, on the other hand, is the failing comedian who’s about to venture down a dark and dangerous path from which there is no return, so it’s easy to see how the Todd Phillips-directed Joker spinoff is drawing story cues from both The Killing Joke and De Niro’s King of Comedy.

And the ensemble cast? Well, it’s really something special.

Joaquin Phoenix Looks Nuts In New Joker Set Photos 1 of 3

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The upcoming, standalone Joker film starring Joaquin Phoenix has shared its first image of the actor as the infamous Batman nemesis.

The film’s director Todd Phillips shared a picture of the make-up less Phoenix in character as simply “Arthur” on his Instagram; it was previously revealed that Phoenix’s character would be named Arthur Fleck in the film. The movie will be an origin story of the villain who was previously portrayed on the big screen by Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger and, most recently, Jared Leto.

“Under the direction of Todd Phillips,...

Todd Phillips, director of the upcoming, as-yet-untitled Joker origin film, has revealed a first look at star Joaquin Phoenix, before he becomes the infamous Batman villain.

Phillips captioned the image with just “Arthur,” evidently this iteration of the Joker’s name before he took on his mononym.

The film, directed by Todd Phillips, is an “exploration of a man disregarded by society that is not only a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale.” Scott Silver co-wrote the script with Phillips.

Robert De Niro is in talks to join the film, as a talk-show host who plays a part in driving Phoenix’s character to go mad and become the Clown Prince of Crime. According to insiders, the script has ties to De Niro’s film “King of Comedy,” about a failing comedian (De Niro) who kidnaps a popular talk-show host to gain fame. In this case, the roles would be reversed,...

If Joaquin Phoenix isn’t enough to get you interested in yet another movie about the Joker, perhaps the news that Robert De Niro may be joining him will help? Variety reports that the two-time Oscar winner is in talks to join the spinoff about Batman’s arch-nemesis, which Todd Phillips (“The Hangover”) is directing — and his character will echo one of his former roles.

Per Variety’s sources, De Niro would play “a talk-show host who plays a part in driving Phoenix’s character to go mad and become the Clown Prince of Crime. According to insiders, the script has ties to De Niro’s film ‘King of Comedy,’ about a failing comedian who kidnaps a popular talk-show host to gain fame. In this case, the roles would be reversed, with De Niro playing the smug host.” Martin Scorsese directed 1982’s “The King of Comedy,” which co-starred Jerry Lewis...

Robert De Niro is in talks to join Joaquin Phoenix in Todd Phillips’ untitled Joker origin movie, sources confirmed to Variety.

Sources say De Niro would be portraying a talk-show host who plays a part in driving Phoenix’s character to go mad and become the Clown Prince of Crime. Insiders say the script has ties to the De Niro comedy “King of Comedy” about a failing comedian who kidnaps a popular talk-show host to gain fame. In this case, the roles would be reversed, with De Niro playing the smug host.

Phillips is on board to co-write and direct the Warner Bros. movie.

Insiders stress that Jared Leto, who starred in “Suicide Squad” as the Joker, is still on board as the character in the DC Universe and that this Phoenix pic has no effect on what happens with Leto’s character in future DC films.

Leto most recently...