A version of this story about Mark Friedberg and “Joker” first appeared in the Oscar Nominations Preview issue of TheWrap’s Oscar magazine.
Director Todd Phillips and production designer Mark Friedberg are not exactly comic-book people or superhero-movie people, and it’s clear that their collaboration on “Joker” owes more to the gritty urban look of films like “Taxi Driver” than to anything from the DC pages that introduced the character.
“It’s obviously inspired by ‘Taxi Driver,'” Friedberg said. “‘Taxi Driver’ was inspired by the diary of (failed George Wallace assassin) Arthur Bremer, our character is named Arthur … It may stop short of being an homage, but it’s inspired by ‘Taxi Driver’ and by the version of New York City that ‘Taxi Driver’ was set in, by other cinema of that time.
“When I read the script I said, ‘It should feel like we have cameras and...
Director Todd Phillips and production designer Mark Friedberg are not exactly comic-book people or superhero-movie people, and it’s clear that their collaboration on “Joker” owes more to the gritty urban look of films like “Taxi Driver” than to anything from the DC pages that introduced the character.
“It’s obviously inspired by ‘Taxi Driver,'” Friedberg said. “‘Taxi Driver’ was inspired by the diary of (failed George Wallace assassin) Arthur Bremer, our character is named Arthur … It may stop short of being an homage, but it’s inspired by ‘Taxi Driver’ and by the version of New York City that ‘Taxi Driver’ was set in, by other cinema of that time.
“When I read the script I said, ‘It should feel like we have cameras and...
- 12/18/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Jim Knipfel Feb 3, 2019
There aren't many disaster films set at the Super Bowl but we do what we can, given we’ll never have another.
With the skies above Minneapolis abuzz with black helicopters, armed troops wandering the streets of Minnesota, bomb-sniffing dogs giving everyone the once-over, and a game-day security plan that probably includes a ban on tailgating and/or undercover snipers positioned throughout the stadium, it seems it’s time once again to pull out my Super Bowl disaster films.
Of course I do this every year, but that's not the point.
There haven’t been many Super Bowl disaster movies, in no small part because the National Football League is comprised of a bunch of litigious tightasses who seem to think snipers, crashing blimps loaded with projectiles, and thousands of panicking fans trampling one another to get to safety would somehow reflect them in a bad light.
There aren't many disaster films set at the Super Bowl but we do what we can, given we’ll never have another.
With the skies above Minneapolis abuzz with black helicopters, armed troops wandering the streets of Minnesota, bomb-sniffing dogs giving everyone the once-over, and a game-day security plan that probably includes a ban on tailgating and/or undercover snipers positioned throughout the stadium, it seems it’s time once again to pull out my Super Bowl disaster films.
Of course I do this every year, but that's not the point.
There haven’t been many Super Bowl disaster movies, in no small part because the National Football League is comprised of a bunch of litigious tightasses who seem to think snipers, crashing blimps loaded with projectiles, and thousands of panicking fans trampling one another to get to safety would somehow reflect them in a bad light.
- 1/31/2014
- Den of Geek
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