From Dheepan to Deadpan: Joaquin Phoenix is Hired Help in Audiard’s “The Sisters Brothers”

More fastidious about the projects he embarks on, Deadline reports that Joaquin Phoenix is in early talks to join the cast of Jacques Audiard’s English language debut. Briefly mentioned late last year when John C. Reilly and the French helmer boarded the project, The Sisters Brothers will likely be lensed sometime this summer. Michael De Luca, Pascal Caucheteux, Rosa Attab, Alison Dickey and Reilly are producing. A film that will likely have a flurry of encounters/supporting players, now the burning question is: which role is Phoenix saddling up for?

Gist: An adaptation of Patrick deWitt’s Gold Rush novel about brothers Eli and Charlie Sisters, who are hired to kill Hermann Kermit Warm, a prospector who has stolen from their boss (the Commodore) in 1851 Oregon.

Worth Noting: Audiard’s 8th feature film will be his 3rd book to film adaptation. His first two outings as a filmmaker were pulp to celluloid items: See How They Fall (1994) and A Self-Made Hero (1996).

Do We Care?: Violence and comedy can be strange bedfellows for the subversive western, but not unlike a Tarantino or Coen bros. treatment, we imagine how this irreducibly talented acting pairing and Audiard’s handling might make be at the top of the list for the most anticipated film for 2017.