Todd Haynes Is Filming a Romantic Detective Movie Starring Joaquin Phoenix This Summer

Hot off the success of his melodrama May December, Portland auteur Todd Haynes is embarking on his next film: a detective movie starring Joaquin Phoenix that will shoot this summer. “It’s a love story between two men set in the ’30s that has explicit sexual content, or at least it challenges you with the sexual relationship between these two men,” Haynes told Variety. “One is a Native American character and one is a corrupt cop in L.A. They have to flee L.A. ultimately and go to Mexico.”

Haynes wrote the film’s story in collaboration with Phoenix and Jon Raymond, the Portland novelist and screenwriter best known for his collaborations with Kelly Reichardt (Showing Up). Phoenix’s co-star, likely to be an unknown, has yet to be cast.