Joaquin Phoenix seems to have killed his film with Todd Haynes

Here’s an eyebrow-raiser for you: Joaquin Phoenix exited Todd Haynes’ gay romance period piece. According to IndieWire, Phoenix was already on location in Guadalajara, Mexico, where production was set to begin, but he ultimately dropped out just five days before filming commenced. Deadline reports that his co-star Danny Ramirez flew to Comic-Con in July not knowing whether the project would resume. A source close to the production told Variety Phoenix got “cold feet.” Producers apparently tried to keep the film alive, but it seems that investors had agreed to finance the film based on Phoenix’s Oscar-winning star power. No Phoenix, no movie, so the entire project is reportedly dead in the water.

What makes this story all the more puzzling is that Phoenix was supposedly the driving force behind this film in the first place. Last year, Haynes described the project as “an original script that I developed with Joaquin Phoenix based on some thoughts and ideas he brought to me. We basically wrote with him as a story writer. Me and Jon Raymond and Joaquin share the story credit. And we hope to be shooting it beginning early next year. It’s a gay love story set in 1930s LA.” Per Deadline, “this film had its fair share of dicey intimacy scenes”—but Phoenix was the one advocating for more explicit scenes between the two male leads in the first place: “Joaquin was pushing me further and going ‘no, let’s go further,’” Haynes told IndieWire. “This will be an NC-17 film.”

In short: “The whole experience was prompted by Joaquin,” Haynes said to IndieWire 2023. “It was prompted by his daring, his desire to push through barriers and to really get into the uncomfortable places about this relationship. And yet it felt like a very organic process.”

What in the world could’ve made Phoenix back out at the last minute of a project that was his idea in the first place? Barring a personal emergency, the most likely answer is usually “creative differences”—though having collaborated with Haynes all the way up to the point of beginning filming, it would have to be a pretty big falling out to tank the whole film. Sources for IndieWire said that “multiple stakeholders on the Haynes project—from financiers to crew—still need to be compensated,” and the current “focus is on cutting checks for the people who invested their time in the project.” Haynes will reportedly turn his attention to Trust, his upcoming HBO series with Kate Winslet, instead. Phoenix will soon be on the promotional circuit for Joker 2.