The heading above may seem harsh, but it’s true – or at least sort of, as Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Renner and Marion Cotillard have all be cast in James Gray’s upcoming movie, Low Life. According to Deadline, Phoenix and Cotillard are already signed up, while Renner is in talks, with the package currently being shopped around Hollywood.
Here’s Deadline’s synopsis for the movie: ‘Cotillard will play a woman attempting to immigrate from Poland. Her American dream turns into a nightmare. While sailing to Ellis Island and a new start, her sister grows deathly ill and she is forced to trade sexual favors for medicine and food to keep her sister alive. Once they land, she is warned to keep quiet about what happened. Though she does, she walks away with immigration papers that deem her a woman with bad morals. With no place to go, she falls prey to a charming sleazebag (Phoenix), who persuades her to turn tricks in New York. Renner is close to signing on to play the sleazebag’s cousin, a magician who sweeps the young woman off her feet and is her best chance to escape the nightmarish life she has fallen into.’
Wow, doesn’t that sound absolutely delightful. Everyone loves movies about sex trafficking!
The film will be Gray’s fourth movie following The Yards, We Own The Night and more recently Two Lovers. The latter movie also starred Phoenix, and it was while promoting it that Joaquin had his faux rap-star-wannabe breakdown, filmed by Casey Affleck for I’m Still There. At the time Gray seemed to be tearing out his hair due his star’s antics, but casting him again suggests the director was either in on the ruse, or Phoenix feels he needs to make things up with Gray, as many blame the star’s faked nuttiness for the Two Lover’s box-office failure.
There’s no news on when the movie might shoot, but all three of the main actors are starring in high profile projects this summer (Cotillard has Dark Knight Rises, Phoenix is making Paul Thomas Anderson’s cul-based flick, and Renner’s got The Avengers and Bourne Legacy), so it’s unlikely to go in front of the camera until 2012.