During his visit to Cannes, where he presented “May December” in Competition, Todd Haynes revealed that he was preparing a feature film with Joaquin Phoenix: a gay romance in Los Angeles in the 1930s.
Six years after The Museum of Wonders, Todd Haynes made his big comeback this year in the Cannes Competition with May December, where he directed Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman, respectively Oscar winners for Still Alice and Black Swan. And he announced that another actor who won the precious golden statuette would be part of his next project.
“My next film is a feature film based on an original script that I developed with Joaquin Phoenixfrom thoughts and ideas that he transmitted to me”declares the filmmaker in an interview given to Indiewire.
“Jon Raymond, Joaquin and I will be credited as screenwriters. And we hope to shoot it early next year. It’s a gay love story set in 1930s Los Angeles.”
A feature film which, if it does not yet have a title, promises to be raw. “Joaquin was pushing me to go further, telling me ‘No, let’s go even further’. The film will be rated NC-17.” Which, in the United States, corresponds to an outright ban on spectators under the age of 17, whether or not they are accompanied by an adult.
A seal with which Le Dernier tango à Paris or La Vie d’Adèle had, for example, been struck when they were released in the United States, when they are respectively prohibited for children under 16, and for children under 12 with a warning in France, the question of sexuality being more taboo across the Atlantic.
While waiting to find out more (and while Todd Haynes is also preparing a new series for HBO with Kate Winslet, after Mildred Pierce), this project may be for Joaquin Phoenix a way of consoling himself for having missed out on the Secret of Brokeback Mountain, which he had been considered for (alongside Matt Damon) when there was talk of Gus van Sant directing it.