Todd Haynes says the romance movie he planned to make with Joaquin Phoenix and Danny Ramirez could still happen “in a different form” following Phoenix’s abrupt departure.
Haynes had originally planned to film a love story about two men, played by Phoenix and Ramirez, this summer. At the last minute, however, Phoenix departed the project, which then delayed production indefinitely.
Speaking at the Marrakech Film Festival, via Variety, Haynes briefly addressed the matter and noted that the film could potentially find new life someday in the future.
What did Todd Haynes say about the romance movie Joaquin Phoenix departed from?
“What happened this summer was tough,” Haynes commented. “But the film itself and the script itself may resurrect in a different form someday.”
According to Variety, Phoenix originated the idea for the movie — which reportedly follows a corrupt cop and his young lover as they travel from Los Angeles to Mexico in the 1930s — and developed the screenplay alongside Haynes and Jon Raymond.
It is unclear why Phoenix left the project at the last minute. He declined to address the situation while promoting Joker: Folie á Deuz at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival in September.
Producer Christine Vachon said at the San Sebastian Film Festival, via The Hollywood Reporter, “The most tragic part about it, in my mind, is Todd Haynes is 62. There’s a finite number of films that they’ll be able to do in his lifetime. 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.”
Ramirez also told Variety that the situation is “definitely disappointing,” though he noted that it gave him “more inspiration to keep driving.”
