Lynne Ramsay Says ‘Polaris’ Film Will Star Joaquin Phoenix & Rooney Mara; Is Adapting A Margaret Atwood Story

Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay is reportedly going to be reuniting with her “You Were Never Really Here” star and Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix for a newly announced project titled “Polaris,” with Phoenix’s partner, actress Rooney Mara (“The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo“) taking a role alongside him. Details on the new film are being kept under wraps, but Ramsay revealed the news herself.

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“He’s crazy, but he’s the best actor I’ve ever met. Everything he does on the set has a reason,” she told the Spanish outlet El Espanol, having recently visited the Valencia International Film Festival Cinema Jove in Spain. “It’s much more difficult when you come up with an original idea like this, but it’s impossible not to get excited when you’re preparing a movie with Joaquin.”

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We shouldn’t expect “Polaris” to begin just yet unless we get further information. Phoenix is currently shooting director Ari Aster‘s (“Hereditary,” “Midsommar“) latest pic, “Disappointment Blv” in Montreal and is attached to play Napoleon alongside Jodie Comer for director Ridley Scott in his epic biopic “Kitbag” for Apple. “Kitbag” will be another reunion as Phoenix and Scott previously worked together on the Oscar-winning period action film “Gladiator.”

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The article also briefly mentions Ramsey will be developing two adaptions as feature films, Margaret Atwood‘s (“The Handmaid’s Tale“) short story the “Stone Mattress” and Stephen King‘s best-seller “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.” The King news is known and was revealed last year, but Ramsay adapting Margaret Atwood is definitely something that’s never been widely reported, if known at all.

READ MORE: Lynne Ramsay To Direct ‘The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon,’ Based On Novel By Stephen King

Atwood’s short story was published by The New Yorker in 2011 and followed female protagonist Verna, a woman in her ’60s. After several of her husbands die of “natural causes,” she decides to take an Arctic cruise in an attempt to find a new partner, only to discover one of the passengers had raped her when she was fifteen years old and doesn’t recognize her. So Verna now plans to kill him with a 1.9 billion old stromatolite (ancient rocks essentially).

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The King novel focuses on a nine-year-old girl who gets lost on the Appalachian Trail. The only comfort is her portable radio— she’s a huge fan of Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Tom Gordon and listens to baseball games on the radio fantasizing that Tom will save her.

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While “Polaris” might be based on something else or an original idea, there it’s possible it could be an adaptation of the Jack McDevitt sci-fi novel or Michael Northrop‘s sailing thriller with a tropical setting; given her other two projects are based on existing stories. It’s unclear which of the three projects will go first, but financiers will surely love the sound of “starring Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara,” don’t be surprised if it’s “Polaris.”