Pedro Pascal is a superhero on—and off—screen.
The Fantastic Four actor swooped in to save De Noche, an explicit gay romance film, that was left in the lurch when Oscar-winning actor Joaquin Phoenix abandoned it a year and a half ago.
The film’s production was halted in August 2024 after Phoenix, 51, abruptly withdrew from the project less than a week before shooting was scheduled to begin. Sets, production equipment, and crew had already been assembled on location in Guadalajara, Mexico, when the actor backed out.
The Joker actor, who co-starred with Pascal, 50, in Eddington last year, has declined to comment on his departure. In September 2024, Phoenix told an Associated Press reporter that he wouldn’t speak publicly about his withdrawal without the filmmakers also present.
The Oscar winner was involved in both script development and securing financing for the film. His withdrawal completely halted the project for 17 months.
With Pascal’s casting, shooting is set to resume in March.
In De Noche, Pascal will play a hard-boiled L.A. detective who begins an affair with a young boarding-school teacher, played by Danny Ramirez, who, perhaps ironically, just quit HBO’s The Last of Us, which used to star Pascal.
The 1930s-era noir will be directed by Todd Haynes, whose last film, May December, earned him a screenwriting Oscar nomination.
“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,” Haynes said in an interview with Variety on Tuesday.
The Oscar-nominated director has previously spoken out on the potential difficulty of producing a film like this under the new presidential administration.
“Always with filmmaking in particular, the financing question is complicated,” Haynes said at the Berlin Film Festival last year. “So it’s also about the kind of financiers who are willing to take risks and willing to support strong voices. And I think that exists, but again, it takes examples and positive outcomes to fortify those kinds of risks that people may want to take.”
Assuredly now, with a proven star attached, Haynes will be able to see the project through. With Pascal’s name on the project, the film secured funding from French production studio MK2 Films.
The studio recently funded two international films to great success. Brazil’s The Secret Agent and Norway’s Sentimental Value racked up 15 Oscar nominations altogether.
Filming is set to commence next month. De Noche has not yet reported a release date.
