5 Days before Filming! Joaquin Phoenix Abruptly Exits Gay Romance Film!!
Academy Award-winning actor Joaquin Phoenix (Joker) abruptly exits a film five days before shooting and it may cost a seven figures loss.
Last Friday, IndieWire exclusively reported that Joaquin Phoenix (Joker) has abruptly stepped down from his starring role in a gay romance film just five days before the start of filming. In addition, Deadline exclusivly reported the film is not on hiatus, but is officially dead, and the there are no plans to replace Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role. According to the reports, the movie was originally scheduled to be shot in Mexico with the entire set ready, but Joaquin Phoenix abruptly dropped out of the movie before he left for the country, and the production team spent two weeks trying to save the movie, but to no avail. According to the sources of Variety, the movie's worldwide distribution rights had already been successfully sold due to the fact that the movie was to be starred by Joaquin Phoenix. Now that the movie is dead, the production company will have to compensate financers, the cast and crew and others and the lossess is estimated to be seven figures.
The film was to be directed by Todd Haynes (Carol), written by him, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jon Raymond (Mildred Pierce), and starred Joaquin Phoenix and Danny Ramirez (the new “Falcon” in the Marvel Cinematic Universe). The romantic detective film centers on two men fleeing from California to Mexico. The director revealed earlier that the movie was based on some of Joaquin Phoenix's scattered concepts, and when they worked together to develop the script, the latter kept pushing the boundaries of the movie, so the sex scenes in the movie would be very graphic and would require a NC-17 rating. Now, Joaquin Phoenix's sudden exit from the film is a surprise to the production team and audiences.
According to the above reports, Todd Haynes is now focusing on his next project, the HBO miniseries Trust, written by him and Jon Raymond and starring Academy Award-winning actress Kate Winslet (The Reader) in an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-wining novel of the same name. As Joaquin Phoenix's next film, Joker: Folie à Deux, will premiere at the Venice International Film Festival later this month or earlier next month, and will be released in October, his exit from this film is expected to be the focus of a lot of interviews, and there may be more news to come. One may wonder if the film would be able to get back on track after all the controversy?
Photo: Oscars