While I’m Still Here depicted a fake career change for Joaquin Phoenix, it did seem to result in different sensibilities for the sort of projects the actor would take on after. With The Master, The Immigrant, Her, and Inherent Vice marking a four-film streak of incredible performances like few other actors of his generation have produced, Phoenix has now set out to reteam with his I’m Still Here director (and brother-in-law) Casey Affleck for a new project.
Moving out of the faux documentary field and back a century, THR reports Affleck will direct Phoenix in the 1916-set western titled Far Bright Star. Marking Affleck’s narrative directorial debut, the film comes from Robert Olmstead‘s novel, which follows a cavalryman (Phoenix) who leads a group to hunt down Pancho Villa, but things go very wrong and he’s left in the desert attempting to survive. Scripted by Damien Ober, Affleck says, “This is a beautifully written story on pain and loss and the drive and resilience one finds within themselves to continue through the day.”
As we await the film, check out the official synopsis and pick up the book on Amazon.
The year is 1916. The enemy, Pancho Villa, is elusive. Terrain is unforgiving. Through the mountains and across the long dry stretches of Mexico, Napoleon Childs, an aging cavalryman, leads an expedition of inexperienced horse soldiers on seemingly fruitless searches. Though he is seasoned at such missions, things go terribly wrong, and his patrol is suddenly at the mercy of an enemy intent on their destruction. After witnessing the demise of his troops, Napoleon is left by his captors to die in the desert.
Through him we enter the conflicted mind of a warrior as he tries to survive against all odds, as he seeks to make sense of a lifetime of senseless wars and to reckon with the reasons a man would choose a life on the battlefield. Olmstead, an award-winning writer, has created a tightly wound novel that is as moving as it is terrifying.
Have you read the novel? Are you looking forward to their next collaboration?