Ari Aster’s next movie, Disappointment Blvd., is on the way – and Joaquin Phoenix will play the leading role, Deadline (opens in new tab) reports. Aster will write and direct, while A24, the studio behind Aster’s previous movies, Hereditary and Midsommar, will produce and finance the project.
Specific details are being kept under wraps, but the plot of Disappointment Blvd. is described as “an intimate, decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time” – who we can guess will be played by Phoenix.
This sounds like a departure from Aster’s previous offerings – Aster has made a name for himself with unsettling horror flicks. Florence Pugh-led Midsommar follows a group of American tourists’ encounter with a Swedish cult, while his debut feature Hereditary, starring Toni Collette, is about a family trying to outrun their sinister fate.
This will be Phoenix’s first project since his Oscar-winning performance in Joker – he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the Clown Prince of Crime. He’s also due to star in Ridley Scott’s Napoleon Bonaparte biopic, Kitbag, for Apple TV Plus. However, with Scott currently working on crime thriller Gucci with Lady Gaga and Adam Driver, production on Kitbag is not likely to start before 2022. Phoenix can be seen next in Mike Mills’ road trip drama C’mon C’mon, but he shot that movie in 2019, before the Oscar win (we know, we’re struggling to keep up, too).
While we wait for Disappointment Blvd., make sure you’ve caught up with all the best movies of 2020.