Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara will again be sharing the screen in Polaris, the latest film from Lynne Ramsay.
The engaged couple have worked alongside each other on multiple projects before, including Spike Jonze’s Her, and the 2018 documentary Dominion. Here, they are set to co-star in Ramsay’s first film since 2017’s You Were Never Really Here (which also starred Phoenix), although it joins a longer list of upcoming projects for the Scottish filmmaker.
Ramsay is also set to direct an adaptation of the Stephen King novel, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, as well as being lined up to adapt a Margaret Atwood short story. It is an uncharacteristically busy schedule for a filmmaker that followed up her 1999 debut, Ratcatcher, with only three other features in 20 years. If there was ever a filmmaking embodiment of the mantra ‘a little goes a long way,’ Lynne Ramsay is it.
Ratcatcher saw Ramsay win a BAFTA for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer, and more recently she picked up the Best Screenplay Award at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival You Were Never Really Here. Ramsay cherishes working with Phoenix. Speaking to El Espanol, she remarked that: “he’s crazy, but he’s the best actor I’ve ever met.” Phoenix is known for his unique working style, but Ramsay goes onto explain that “everything he does on the set he has a reason.”
Phoenix is currently working with horror maverick Ari Aster on Disappointment Blvd., and is also billed to star in Ridley Scott’s new epic Kitbag. As for Rooney Mara, she is set to star in Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, and has recently been announced for Women Talking, a new feature from Sarah Polley.
Speaking about Polaris, Ramsay added that “it’s much more difficult when you come up with an original idea like this, but it’s impossible not to get excited when you’re preparing a movie with Joaquin.”
Beyond this, we know little else about the film to date. But if You Were Never Really Here is anything to go by, a Lynne Ramsay and Joaquin Phoenix reunion is worth our utmost attention.
Words by Ben Faulkner.
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