‘Joker’ Director Todd Phillips Wanted to Make a John Belushi Biopic Starring Zach Galifianakis

To the joy of Batman fans who absolutely hate Batman, this weekend we’re getting a sequel to 2019’s Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix as the Clown Prince of Crime Incels, and Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn. The first movie made over a billion dollars at the box office, but from the sounds of it, Joker: Folie à Deux (not to be confused with Hot Shots! Part Deux), won’t come close to that.

A big reason why the movie’s box office take is expected to be so paltry is that this movie is a musical, and likely won’t appeal to viewers who loved the “Scorsese karaoke cover” vibe of the original. 

This baffling, possibly self-defeating take on the material isn’t all that surprising if you’re familiar with the work of Todd Phillips, a guy who began his career with a documentary that was funded through the sale of John Wayne Gacy paintings. Keep in mind, this was before Kickstarter existed, so presumably hawking a notorious serial killer’s art was one of the few financing options available to independent filmmakers at that time.

But one of Phillips’ oddest projects is a movie that never actually got made: a biopic about late Saturday Night Live legend John Belushi. 

While the same subject had been covered before in the controversial (and terrible) Wired, Phillips’ film was to be made in collaboration with Belushi’s widow Judith Belushi Pisano (who passed away earlier this year). When it was first announced back in 2010, Belushi Pisano was listed as an executive producer, and the script was to be written by Steven Conrad, who also penned the Will Smith tearjerker The Pursuit of Happyness. 

But the most eyebrow-raising aspect of the biopic was the potential casting. One name that was floated early on was Jack Black, who had previously stressed that he would never play John Belushi in a movie, and not just because John Belushi wasn’t a children’s video game character. “His life is not as funny as his work,” Black stated, “and watching me do an imitation of him doing his Saturday Night Live bits won’t be as funny as watching him do his SNL bits.” 

The other comic actor who was rumored to play Belushi was Zach Galifianakis, who worked with Phillips on the Hangover movies and Due Date. Which is a little weird, considering that they don’t really look alike, have radically different comedic styles and Galifianakis was already seven years older than Belushi was when he died when the movie was announced.

Phillips later confirmed that he and Conrad were, in fact, eyeing Galifianakis for the part. “Zach honestly is the guy we talk about,” Phillips told Collider. “But Zach and I haven’t spoken about it. It’s so in its nascent stages that I’m not sure when that comes to fruition, if Zach would be interested. Or what. So, we’ll see.”

Weirdly enough, a month before that interview was published, Galifianakis told MTV that he had been approached by Phillips about the movie, but wasn’t interested. “We spoke about it a while back, but not recently,” Galifianakis told the outlet. When asked if he was going to take the role, he responded: “No I don’t think so. I could play maybe the guy Grizzly Adams. You know that story?”

After the film “fell apart” at Warner Bros, Phillips dropped out, and Conrad tried to make it as an “independent production.” Oddly enough, he wanted either Joaquin Phoenix or Emile Hirsch to play Belushi. According to Hirsch, he was asked to gain 100 pounds for the role before the film – which never actually happened – had even secured funding.

And obviously Phoenix went on to make his own movie about the day-to-day frustrations of being a professional comedian.

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