‘Eddington’: Ari Aster Says His New Western Will Be Set During The Pandemic

Even though “Beau Is Afraid” quickly became a polarizing film, there’s no denying that Ari Aster is still one of the most interesting filmmakers working today. While ‘Beau’ wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, there are still plenty of folks out there excitedly waiting to see what else the filmmaker has to come. Apparently, after teasing it quite a bit over the past several months, it looks like his neo-Western, “Eddington,” is the next feature. And now, we have a little bit of new information about the film that gives us an idea of how Aster is approaching the story.

According to a new interview with La Repubblica (via World of Reel), it appears that Ari Aster is definitely making “Eddington” his next film. Not only that but the film is now being described as a contemporary Western that takes place during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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

You may remember that Aster has been talking freely about “Eddington” quite a bit recently. During an AMA on Reddit, he even said that the film could have been his debut feature, and he described it as a “Western-noir dark ensemble comedy.” We also know that the film is said to take place in a fictional mining town in Arizona. And during the press run for “Beau is Afraid,” he talked about how he wanted to make this film with Joaquin Phoenix. 

“Although it’s sort of a – I don’t know if you’d call it a revisionist western,” the director said at the time. “It’s contemporary; one foot is in the western and one foot is even more heavily in the noir genre.

Obviously, this is a script that the filmmaker has been working on for ages, and if it’s true that it’ll be set during the pandemic, Aster is looking to give the story a bit more relevancy for what has happened over the past few years. 

READ MORE: ‘Beau Is Afraid’: Ari Aster & Joaquin Phoenix Love Their Moms, Talk 3-Hour Length Consideration, Westerns & More [Interview]

It’s unknown when filming might begin on “Eddington.” We know that the original plan was said to be that production would start during this summer. However, with the WGA striike and impending SAG strike, those plans have clearly changed. But hopefully, we get production started on this film soon, so we can figure out what Aster is imagining when he describes something as a “Western-noir dark ensemble comedy.”