Joaquin Phoenix In Talks To Join Jacques Audiard’s ‘The Sisters Brothers’ With John C. Reilly

It would seem that Joaquin Phoenix has an embarrassment of options at the moment. Last week, he was eyeing a role playing Jesus in “Mary Magdalene” opposite Rooney Mara, and now a major French auteur wants him for a pretty exciting new picture.

Phoenix is in talks to join John C. Reilly in Jacques Audiard‘s “The Sisters Brothers.” Based on Patrick deWitt‘s acclaimed novel, the darkly funny movie is set against the backdrop of the Gold Rush and follows brothers Eli and Charlie Sisters who are hired to kill prospector Hermann Kermit Warm. Here’s the book synopsis:

Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn’t share his brother’s appetite for whiskey and killing, he’s never known anything else. But their prey isn’t an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm’s gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a living–and whom he does it for.

With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt pays homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable comic tour de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters–losers, cheaters, and ne’er-do-wells from all stripes of life–and told by a complex and compelling narrator, it is a violent, lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier that beautifully captures the humor, melancholy, and grit of the Old West and two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love.

Reilly and Phoenix as gun-slinging bros? Hell yes, please. Production is supposed to start this summer, which I would presume will force Phoenix to choose between this picture and “Mary Magdalene,” which is aiming to gear up in July. My guess is that he’ll go with this one. But what about his brewing reteam with Casey Affleck on “Far Bright Star“? Hopefully that film, about the hunt for Pancho Villa, is still in the cards. [Variety]

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Joaquin Phoenix In Talks To Join Jacques Audiard’s ‘The Sisters Brothers’ With John C. Reilly

Joaquin Phoenix In Talks To Join Jacques Audiard's ‘The Sisters Brothers’ With John C. Reilly