Ari Aster is still a few years from 40, yet he’s already a major auteur. He has two sui generis horror hits on his CV; a semi-pricey underperformer that has future cult item written all over it; and a superfan in no less than Martin Scorsese. He can do whatever he wants, with whatever cast he wants. So it’s not surprise that his next film, which beings production this week, is a) part of a semi-uncool genre, and b) has quite the cast.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Aster’s next film is called Eddington, and it’s described as a “contemporary Western” concerning, per THR, a “small-town New Mexico sheriff with lofty aspirations.” Who’s in it? None other than Joaquin Phoenix, who was very game as the ever-harried titular lead in Aster’s mind-melting epic Beau is Afraid.
As for the rest of the cast, Phoenix will reunite with his Irrational Man costar Emma Stone, who’s hot off a pretty exciting Sunday. The happily ubiquitous Pedro Pascal will be in it, too, as will Austin Butler, recently seen duking it out bald — if sadly sans Sting codpiece — in Dune: Part Two. The cast (or at least that made public thus far) is rounded out by Luke Grimes, Deidre O’Connell, Michael Ward, and Clifton Collins Jr.
Who’s footing the bill for another star-studded Ari Aster mindf*ck? A24, of course, who have always happily given him carte blanche to make whatever he wants, even if it’s a three-hour Jewish mother joke that was never going to turn into another Hereditary or Midsommar (but which definitely bewitches those on its madcap wavelength).
In their Instagram post announcing the title, cast, and genre, A24 claimed Eddington was “coming soon,” but it’s probably not. Let the man work.
(Via THR)
