Pedro Pascal steps into high-profile movie role after Joaquin Phoenix suddenly quit the project

Pedro Pascal is coming to the rescue of a film that was thought to be dead in the water after his Eddington costar Joaquin Phoenix dropped out at the last minute.

Pascal, 50, has stepped in to play the lead role in acclaimed indie auteur Todd Haynes's upcoming gay romance De Noche, after the film was thrown in 2024, Variety reported on Wednesday.

Phoenix, 51, had originally signed on to De Noche to play a hardboiled detective, with Danny Ramirez — who remains in the cast — playing his much-younger romantic interest, a boarding school teacher.

But in August 2024, it was reported that Phoenix had told Haynes and the film's producers that he was quitting the production just five days before they were scheduled to begin filming.

The withdrawal was particularly shocking, as industry experts assumed Phoenix's departure would kill the project, as it would be almost impossible to find a replacement star in just a few days, and the production likely couldn't afford to keep paying the rest of its cast and crew while trying to secure a new star.

But Haynes's film appears to have beaten the odds after securing another A-lister to helm the niche project. 

Phoenix and Haynes both declined to comment at the time on why the production broke down.

But Christine Vachon, Haynes's longtime collaborator and one of the film's producers, called De Noche turmoil a 'tragedy' and claimed to know little beyond the basics that were reported at the time.

'In a lot of ways, the most tragic part about it is that Todd Haynes is 62. He’s not old, right? But there is a finite number of films that he’ll be able to do in his lifetime,' she said at the Creative Investors Conference at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in September 2024. 'I consider him one of the most extraordinary film artists of his generation, and the idea that his time was wasted and that a movie is not a result of those years of working closely with Joaquin… That is the tragedy to me. 

'And that I can’t get over, that we as a cultural community lost the opportunity to have another movie by Todd Haynes. That is just criminal,' she added.

Vachon is back to produce the revived version of De Noche alongside Pamela Koffler for Killer Films.

Phoenix later addressed the controversy — obliquely — at a September 2024 press conference for Joker: Folie à Deux.

'I think, if I do [address the departure], I’d just be sharing my opinion from my perspective and the other creatives aren’t here to say their piece, and I just don’t feel like that would be right,' Phoenix said. 'I’m not sure how that would be helpful. So, I just I don’t think I will.'

According to Variety, the 1930s-set period film stars Pascal as a police officer in Los Angeles who unexpectedly falls in love with a boarding school teacher (Ramirez).

Their romance is threatened by highly placed corrupt figures, and the two are forced to travel south of the border to escape persecution. 

According to the publication, the focus on LA's history of unbridled corruption is reminiscent of Roman Polanski's classic neo-noir mystery Chinatown.

Interestingly, Pascal recently collaborated on screen with the actor he's replacing.

He and Phoenix both starred in Ari Aster's acclaimed neo-Western thriller Eddington, which charted societal breakdown and social media poisoning in a small New Mexico town amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pascal starred in the film as the embattled mayor trying to keep his constituents safe in the uncertain early days of the pandemic, while Phoenix played the reactionary local sheriff who bristles against Covid safety regulations and decides to launch a competing campaign for mayor.

The bloody satire was popular with critics, but it only grossed $13.7 million against its $25 million budget. 

After Pascal's casting was announced, Haynes said in a statement: 'This story, with Pedro Pascal and Danny Ramirez in the two leads, arises out of an era — all too relevant to our own — of domestic corruption, racial exploitation and global terror.

'But it emerges as a testament to the inexplicable powers of desire and love to survive and overcome even the most crippling of human barriers,' said the May December director, who is openly gay and regularly makes films with LGBTQ themes.

Fionnuala Jamison, the managing director of MK2 Films, added: 'Few filmmakers connect with audiences as strongly as Todd Haynes.

She noted that Haynes's films 'such as Carol and Far from Heaven have left a lasting emotional impact worldwide. De Noche carries that same power, and with Killer Films and a remarkable cast led by Pedro Pascal, it is a stand-out project we are proud to be a part of and share with buyers.'