Director Todd Haynes has opened up about the sudden demise of his gay romance film after Joaquin Phoenix dropped out just days before production was set to begin.

The untitled film was set to see the Joker: Folie à Deux star as the gay lead in the NC-17 “explicit period drama” which reportedly was set to follow two men developing an intense romantic relationship during the 1930s, leaving California in exchange for Mexico.

Top Gun: Maverick star Danny Ramirez joined the cast and hype built for the hotly anticipated movie. Then, in August, disaster struck as Phoenix dropped out of the Mexico shoot just days before production was set to begin.

Details for why he left the film are unclear, though there were reports that noted “there was buzz” around the film’s “edgy scenes”. Haynes has now revealed that Phoenix’s departure – which reportedly resulted in “production being dead, and not paused” – was “tough” to navigate.

“What happened this summer was tough,” Haynes told Variety on Friday (6 December). “But the film itself and the script itself may resurrect in a different form someday.”

Phoenix had a cryptic response when previously asked about why he left the film, saying that he is “not sure how that would be helpful” to explain his reasoning. 

“If I do, I’ll just be sharing my opinion from my perspective, and the other creatives aren’t here to say their piece, and it just doesn’t feel like that would be right,” Phoenix said. 

Producer Christine Vachon was unable to provide further details for Phoenix’s departure, but said that it was a “tragedy” that Haynes’ “time was wasted”. 

“Pretty much what happened is what’s out there for you to read. I don’t know any more than that. I would gossip if I had anything to gossip about,” she said during the San Sebastian Film Festival.

“Todd Haynes is 62. He’s not old but there’s a finite number of films that he will 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 a movie is not the result of all that time working with Joaquin is a tragedy to me.

“That I can’t get over,” she said. “The idea that we as a cultural community lost an opportunity to have a new movie by Todd Haynes is a tragedy.”

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