While many are looking forward to Joaquin Phoenix’s new film when Joker: Folie À Deux debuts soon, the other major topic of conversation surrounding the actor right now is the movie he won’t be in. Just a couple of weeks before filming on a new gay romantic drama with director Todd Haynes, Phoenix pulled out of the production. Now one of the film’s producers is discussing the part of the affair she calls “criminal.”
Producer Christine Vachon had previously called the situation, with Joaquin Phoenix pulling out at the last minute a nightmare. Appearing at the San Sebastian Film Festival, (via THR) Vachon spoke a bit more about her feelings. While she said there really isn’t anything more to the story that we don’t know, she lamented that we won’t be seeing another film from Oscar-nominated writer and director Todd Haynes. She said…
The truth is, pretty much what happened is out there for all of you to see. If I had anything to gossip about it, I would, but I don’t. It was tragic. The most tragic part about it, in my mind, is Todd Hughes is 62. There’s a finite number of films that they’ll be able to do in his lifetime.
The major frustration is not that the movie fell apart, but that it happened so close to production, after so much time and effort, (and one assumes, money) had already been spent. It’s certainly rare for movies to get to this point before they collapse. Problems are usually discovered much earlier.
At this point, it’s still unclear exactly what happened. The situation was even more unusual because Phoenix was reportedly the one who brought the idea for the film to Haynes, so what could have happened to turn him off the film is even more of a question since he was interested enough to get the ball rolling.
We still don’t know why the actor walked away. He was recently asked that question, but Phoenix avoided answering the question, saying he didn’t want to only tell his side of the story. It’s also unclear why Phoenix’s role isn’t simply being recast. Whatever the reason, it means that the next Todd Haynes movie is now something we won’t see, and that, according to Vachon, is a significant loss to cinema. She continued…
I consider him one of the most extraordinary film artists of his generation. The idea that his time was wasted and that a movie is not a result of those years of working closely with Joaquin, that is the tragedy to me and that I can’t get over. We, as a cultural community, lost an opportunity to have another movie by Todd Haynes. That is just criminal.
Todd Haynes last directed one of the best movies of 2023, May December, but when we'll see another film from him now is a big question. He's been attached to a potential biopic of singer Peggy Lee, but that movie has never made it past the development phase.
While we still may see more movies from Todd Haynes, he’ll have to go back to the drawing board. Hopefully, his last project won’t be a movie that never happened. While we don't know when we'll get another movie from Haynes, Phoenix has several films on the way. the next Ari Aster movie, Eddington, is currently in production.
