‘Eddington’: Ari Aster May Start Shooting His “Western-Noir Dark Ensemble Comedy” With Joaquin Phoenix This Summer

Ari Aster‘s “Beau Is Afraid” isn’t even in theaters yet, but the “Midsommar” and “Hereditary” already has his fourth film lined up. World Of Reel has the scoop: Aster will start shooting his next movie, “Eddington,” this summer, with Joaquin Phoenix set to lead its ensemble cast. Also back? Cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski, who’s shot all three of Aster’s features.

READ MORE: Ari Aster Is Developing A New Project With Joaquin Phoenix & Says His Next Film Will “Almost Certainly” Be A Western

But this news should come as no surprise to Aster fans. The director has mentioned “Eddington” several times since his rise to fame and even told a Reddit AMA four years ago (not the one he did earlier this week) that he’s had a script for it ready for years and even believed at one point it’d be his debut film. But what’s “Eddington” about? According to Aster, “it’s like a film noir ensemble western dark comedy.” That sounds right up his alley.

“There was a period of time when I thought “Midsommar” would be the debut feature, and there was a period when I thought another script called “Eddington” might be the first movie,” Aster said during the 2019 Reddit AMA. “For like five years, I was trying to get that Western-noir dark ensemble comedy going. That won’t be the next one, by the way, though I do still want to make it very badly. I made “Hereditary” first, but I always had “Midsommar” in my back pocket, like it was right there in me.”

Aster also said in a 2018 Reddit AMA for “Hereditary” that “Eddington” takes place in a fictional mining time in Arizona and would love to shoot the pic there. “Although it’s sort of a – I don’t know if you’d call it a revisionist western,” the director continued. “It’s contemporary; one foot is in the western and one foot is even more heavily in the noir genre. So it’s like a film noir ensemble western dark comedy.” Film noir and Westerns didn’t crossbreed often in each genre’s heydey, but plenty of films in the mid-late 1950s blended their sensibilities somewhat; John Sturges‘ “Bad Day At Black Rock,” for instance. Expect Aster to be up to his own thing with “Eddington,” though.

Aster hinted to The New York Times last month that his next film would “almost certainly” be a Western with Phoenix; so, safe to assume he’s talking about “Eddington.” And World Of Reel says Pogorzelski confirmed “Eddington” would start shooting this summer at a seminar last weekend at Nashville’s Belcourt Theatre. So expect Pogorzelski to be shooting for Aster again, too. The cinematographer also shot “Blue Beetle,” out later this year, and brought his signature look to other recent films like Mimi Cave‘s “Fresh” and Ana Lily Amirpour‘s “Mona Lisa And The Blood Moon.”

But was there anything of note in Aster’s more recent Reddit AMA? Well, he did say he’d like to adapt the board game “Don’t Wake Daddy” for the big screen—no idea how serious Aster is in that comment, but it’s something.  As for who will join Phoenix in the “Eddington” ensemble, expect news on that as the film heads toward production.

“Beau Is Afraid” hit theaters everywhere on Friday. Check out a trailer for the film below (and The Playlist’s review here).