Velvet Goldmine filmmaker Todd Haynes has shared the first nuggets of news regarding his planned film with Joaquin Phoenix.
Todd Haynes has been out on the festival circuit for a few months now, presenting his latest film, May December, a drama featuring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore. Earlier in the summer, when he first hit the promotional trail whilst at Cannes, Haynes revealed that he was planning to work with Joaquin Phoenix next, a collaboration that certainly piqued the interest of many a cinema fan.
Now, Haynes has revealed a few more details regarding the project, telling Variety that the project began with “fragments of ideas” from Phoenix before they hashed out the story over (what we presume was a pretty long) phone conversation.
Screenwriter Jon Mildred (who previously worked with Haynes on 2002’s Far From Heaven) became involved at that point and the story was fleshed out further. As yet untitled, the story will be ‘a romance tale between two very different men set in the 1930s.’ Haynes added, ‘One is a Native American character and one is a corrupt cop in LA. It’s set in the 30s. They have to flee L.A. ultimately and go to Mexico. But it’s a love story with a strong sexual component… Joaquin was pushing it further into more dangerous territory.’
Regarding the Native American actor, Haynes said: ‘we’ve got to find him. It’s probably going to be a discovery’ whilst he also revealed that he’s hoping to shoot, mostly in Mexico in the summer of 2024 although it depends very much on the ongoing strikes and Phoenix’s schedule. We’ll bring you more on this one as we hear it. May December is set to release in the UK courtesy of Sky Cinema on November 17th in cinemas.
Image: BigStock
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