By Filmmaker Todd Haynes has finally spoken out for the first time about his next film, the gay detective noir film that fell apart just five days before filming was to begin after star Joaquin Phoenix pulled out.
The project was announced a year ago with Haynes directing, while Phoenix reportedly came to Haynes with the project, helping develop the script with Haynes and Jon Raymond.
Phoenix was set to play the lead – a volatile cop in 1930s Los Angeles named Richard Rent while Danny Ramirez was to co-star as Native American schoolteacher Joe Thomas.
Both characters 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 reasoning for Phoenix’s exit remains unclear, but his exit sank the project with producers unable to recast as Phoenix was key to the film’s financing.
During a talk at Marrakech Film Festival on Friday, Haynes made a very brief statement on the project, saying he’s determined to push forward with the film in some form: “What happened this summer was tough, but the film itself and the script itself may resurrect in a different form.”
That’s a more hopeful tone than producer Christine Vachon who a few months ago called the project dead. Ramirez meanwhile says he’s hopeful it will happen.
Source: Variety
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