Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay recently spoke at Screen Talks at the BFI London Film Festival, promoting her new film “Die My Love” and revealed (via Screen Daily) that she is writing a “treatment” for a mysterious Glasgow-set feature film, Ramsay’s hometown city which could be a great setting for another grim thriller or drama.
“I’ve actually written something,” said Ramsay over the weekend. “It’s in treatment mode. I’m not going to give details,” she added, and then joked it would be a sequel to her feature debut “Ratcatcher” called “Roadkillers.”
Also, during the event, Ramsay talked about her previous work with Joaquin Phoenix for her fantastic “You Were Never Really Here,” revealing how talented the actor is and how she nearly didn’t make another film, getting depressed after negative reactions to it and huge expectations for the Cannes debut, with the economics of it all adding to the pressure.
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“I got so depressed, [I thought], ‘Am I ever going to make another film?'” Ramsay recalled being told by the project’s financier during the post-production process, “This is really s***, but Joaquin’s okay,” along with the overwhelming expectation for the film to make it to the Cannes Film Festival. “It was soul-destroying. I ended up cutting the film to the bone. I thought [the financier] hated the film and was going to pull the plug. It was so economical.”
“He’s amazing,” Ramsay said (via THR), referring to Phoenix. “I mean, he’s totally terrifying. He’s a beast, you know? When I first met him, I was like, oh, my God, I think I said something really stupid like, ‘Are you left-handed or are you right-handed?'”
“He would just never do the same thing twice, he’d just surprise you,” the filmmaker continued, recalling one unscripted take where the actor purposely fell down some stairs to the shock of folks on set. “Everyone’s running, going, ‘What’s happened to Joaquin?!'” said Ramsay. “He just thought, ‘I’ll try this and see if it works.’ […] Honestly, I’ve never worked with such an exciting actor in my life. He’s phenomenal and he wants to just get on with it — he’s not into all the paraphernalia and these bullshit things… I feel bad for telling you that story because he’ll kill me!”
Adding that Phoenix was so happy with the experience, he was keen to get Ramsay and the crew back together to shoot another movie as soon as possible. We’ll have to keep our fingers crossed that the two will reunite sooner rather than later, as the director has multiple gestating projects expected to be in the works.
“Die My Love” is coming to theaters on November 7, and you can read The Playlist’s review of the new Ramsay film right here from our Cannes Film Festival coverage from eariler in the year.
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