By Actor Danny Ramirez has finally spoken about the recent abrupt exit of Joaquin Phoenix from Todd Haynes’ planned gay detective noir film just five days before it was slated to begin filming in Guadalajara.
The project was announced a year ago with Haynes directing the film. Phoenix reportedly came to Haynes with the project, helping develop the script with Haynes and Jon Raymond.
Phoenix was all set to star as the lead – a volatile cop in 1930s Los Angeles named Richard Rent. He and Ramirez’s Native American schoolteacher Joe Thomas become targets of the city’s corrupt political machine. Together they flee to Mexico and enter a love affair in the humid jungles of the Western coastline.
The reason for Phoenix’s exit remains unclear, though many have speculated he may have gotten cold feet over the explicitness of the sex scenes which would’ve been NC-17. His exit effectively sank the project, producers unable to recast as Phoenix was key to the film’s financing.
Appearing at the Academy Museum Gala Saturday night in Los Angeles, Ramirez (“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” “Top Gun: Maverick”) tells Variety that Phoenix’s exit was “definitely disappointing”. He says:
“If anything, it just gave me more inspiration to keep driving, keep pushing, and knowing that I’m on the right path and approaching the work the right way. So that’s what I’m excited about.
It’s definitely a very complicated situation. The audition process was extensive, and so what I walked away with that was just the artistic validation of throwing down opposite of [Phoenix] in this chemistry read… There was a moment that I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve arrived as a performer.’”
Could it ever be revived? Ramirez offered an unexpectedly positive update at the event, saying: “The most recent update is ‘hopefully’ the [film is happening].”
That’s a far cry from other indications back in August with outrage from the film’s producers who confirmed it was shelved, and talk of the possibility of legal action. Combined with the very public failure of “Joker: Folie a Deux,” it has not been a good few months for Phoenix.
One person who has weighed in is Ramirez’s former “Top Gun: Maverick” co-star Lewis Pullman. Out promoting his leading role in the recent “Salem’s Lot,” Pullman was asked by the trade if he’d like to take on Phoenix’s role to which he said: “I would love to get that call. It’s a brilliant idea. I’m here. I’m here. I’m ready.”
The post ‘Hopeful’ News On Todd Haynes’ Scrapped Film appeared first on Dark Horizons.
