Born Laughing




The Joker incarnation as portrayed by Heath Ledger is nothing new in the world of fan films. There are tons of them out there on the interwebs. So many so that I’m kind of sick of fan films with the channeling of Ledger. Why does this one make the cut? The answer is because the production was one of the first fan films that were released that gave us that movie impression of the Joker.

Born Laughing was written to chronicle the early crimes of Christopher Nolan and Heath Ledger’s incarnation of the Joker character.

This film was made in one day and for a total cost of $100. $50 for food and $50 for costumes. The Joker outfit was comprised of trips to thrift stores and my closet (I already had the pants, the shirt and the gloves) I bought green shoes and the coat at a thrift store, and the vest and tie at a closeout sale at a department store.

The girl was a last minute replacement of what was supposed to be an old man in the script.

The gas can man is the writer.

This was made when there was one trailer out with only a few seconds of footage from the Joker. There were a couple of still images released at this time.

The script is completely original and other than the joker character this film is not based on anything other than what happens inside Ryan Thomas’ head.

This is the last 1/3 of the script. It is unlikely that we will finish this movie due to the fact that the gas can man has lost 40 lbs since the movie, however we are talking about doing another Joker film very soon.

What you get is a one location short film with a Joker character study. And as I indicate with many of the films posted in Follies Picks – there just wasn’t that much out there at the time.
I’d much rather see a fan’s own interpretation of Joker moving forward.

I know imitation is the best form of flattery, but let’s face it…there will never be anyone who can come close to what Ledger did in The Dark Knight.

UPDATED MAY 2017


Share:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.