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Actor Joaquin Phoenix has dropped out of a gay romance film just five days before it was scheduled to start filming, leaving the studio in the lurch with no replacement, per a report from Variety.
The untitled movie headed up by director Todd Haynes was scheduled to start filming in Mexico this month but is now on hold as the lead star dropped out. A source told Variety that the 49-year-old Academy Award winner got “cold feet” and decided to bail.
The movie had already been sold to international distributors before production even began, the outlet noted, and a source said it was too late to recast Phoenix’s role. This abrupt about-face leaves the cast and crew with no work and represents financial losses that could reach seven figures.
“Top Gun: Maverick” star Danny Ramirez was slated to play Phoenix’s love interest in the project. Haynes, who is known for the movie “May December” about a teacher who has an affair with her sixth grade student, based loosely on the real story of Mary Kay Letourneau, spoke with Variety in September 2023 about how the film was developed.
“It’s a love story between two men set in the 30s that has explicit sexual content that or at least it challenges you with the sexual relationship between these two men,” the director explained. “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.”
He added, “But it’s a love story and with a strong sexual component. And what was so remarkable is that it all started with Joaquin having some ideas and some thoughts and just questions and images. And he came to me and said, ‘Does this connect to you at all?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, this is really interesting.’ And so we would just be on the phone talking and it developed into a script.”
Haynes said he helped turn Phoenix’s ideas into the script and noted how, “Joaquin was pushing it further into more dangerous territory, sexually.”
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