It’s unclear if Todd Haynes will ever return to his shelved queer romance drama after Joaquin Phoenix dropped out of the project just days before filming was set to begin. But if Haynes still wants to make it, Lewis Pullman is happy to take on Phoenix’s role.
READ MORE: Joaquin Phoenix Kills Todd Haynes’ Gay Detective Film By Dropping Out At The Last Minute
IndieWire (via Variety) reports that Pullman wants to join his “Top Gun: Maverick” co-star Danny Ramirez on the untitled film and possibly revive it from its unfortunate fate. “I would love to get that call,” Pullman said about starring in Haynes’ film. “It’s a brilliant idea. I’m here. I’m here. I’m ready.” Haynes and Phoenix developed the queer romance together about two men in the 1930s who plan to leave Los Angeles for a life together in Mexico. Jon Raymond penned the script, and production on the feature was imminent before Phoenix dropped out just five days before. Phoenix’s exit sent ripples through the industry, with Haynes’ longtime producer Christine Vachon calling the situation “criminal.”
If Haynes were to return to the project and cast Pullman, it’d be arguably the actor’s most prominent role to date. Pullman is in the midst of a career renaissance since “Top Gun: Maverick,” starring three films in both 2023 and 2024. And he’s set to play Sentry in the upcoming Marvel blockbuster “Thunderbolts*,” in theaters next May. But the chances of Haynes picking up the scrapped project again feel slim. Most likely Haynes will move on to his next HBO miniseries with Kate Winslet, “Trust.”
If Pullman doesn’t reunite with Ramirez on Haynes’ film, he’ll at least have the help Ramirez gave him to help prep for “Salem’s Lot,” on Max now. “[Ramirez] taught me this great thing, a way to break down the arc of a character with all these note cards,” Pullman said on the trip he got from his “Maverick” co-star. “So I did it on this because I wanted to really track basically how Ben’s journey into believing in something crazy like vampires. I was like, ‘OK, I really want of do this right,’ where he’s like, ‘There’s no way vampires are actually [real]’ and then it’s like he sees this, he hears this, he witnesses that and compiling that arc. I tried to map it out with some sort of architecture, and so I hope that the extreme nature of my reactions has some sort of an elegant bell curve going on.”
Still, there’s a chance both Pullman and Ramirez will be back for the upcoming “Top Gun 3.” Does Pullman know anything about the blockbuster sequel? As for reuniting with Ramirez for a possible third “Top Gun,” Pullman said, “All I know is the Glen Powell narrative that apparently he’s claiming there is a script. And this has been said since day one, is I think as long as it’s earned and as long as Tom [Cruise] feels like it continues the story of Maverick in a way that part of the story that needs to be told, then I think it could happen.”
In a perfect world, both Haynes’ scrapped film and “Top Gun 3” would happen, but alas, it doesn’t look likely for that to happen.