James McAvoy for M Night Shyamalan's next film
Joaquin Phoenix appears to have dropped out of M Night Shyamalan's latest - and James McAvoy has stepped in...
UPDATE
It looked as if M. Night Shyamalan's next film, a supernatural thriller, would reunite him with Joaquin Phoenix following their work together on The Village and Signs. But it's not to be.
The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that things with Phoenix "never got past the negotiation stage," and instead, current X-Men star James McAvoy is now in talks to take on the lead role in the thus-far unnamed film.
Shyamalan's last movie, The Visit, is firmly in profit, having taken around $70 million worldwide thus far off a $5 million budget.
Here's our earlier report on Phoenix's potential casting, from the end of August.
We’re hearing very good things about writer/director M. Night Shyamalan’s new film, The Visit. It’s a $5 million production, that Shyamalan funded himself, and it arrives in theaters on September 11. And now Shyamalan is following it up by reportedly signing Joaquin Phoenix up for his next project.
Phoenix, who has appeared in Shyamalan's Signs and The Village, looks as if he is going to collaborate with the director for a third time. Phoenix is in negotiations to star in Shyamalan’s next film, which will start shooting in Philadelphia this November.
Jason Blum, who produced The Visit, will be one of the producers on the mysterious new movie. As you might expect, pretty much everything about the new film is being kept under wraps for the time being.