Joaquin Phoenix drops out of gay romance film just FIVE DAYS before filming after getting 'cold feet'

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Joaquin Phoenix has dropped out of a gay romance film just five days before filming was due to commence in Mexico after getting 'cold feet' over the project - DailyMail.com can confirm.

The Joker star, 49, and Top Gun: Maverick actor Danny Ramirez, 31, were set to play onscreen lovers in the 1930s in Todd Haynes' untitled film which was to include 'explicit sexual content' but  losses on the film could now exceed seven figures after Phoenix's abrupt departure.

Phoenix developed the screenplay for the detective love story with Haynes and Jon Raymond - with a source saying the actor had trepidation over the project amid rumors he was uncomfortable with the film's graphic sex scenes.

The film was set to be rated NC-17 and feature a relationship that will 'challenge' audiences. 

Entire sets had reportedly been built in Guadalajara before Phoenix exited the film.

The crew allegedly speculate that Phoenix's exit was to do with the steamy scenes - per Variety - although other sources counteract that as Phoenix  brought the project to Haynes initially.

Haynes told Variety in September 2023 that Phoenix began creating the film with 'fragments of ideas', adding: 'Basically it was just this wonderful, organic way to create the script. And Joaquin was pushing it further into more dangerous territory, sexually.'

The film - produced by Killer Films and backed by MK2 Film- 'hinged' on Phoenix's casting and had already to international distributors.

Sources now say Phoenix's role cannot be recast, the crew is out of work and stakeholders still need paying.

DailyMail.com has contacted representatives for Phoenix and Haynes for comment. 

Phoenix will next be seen onscreen in Joker sequel  Folie à Deux alongside Lady Gaga - set for release October 4.

Joker: Folie À Deux is the much-anticipated follow-up to 2019's Academy Award-winning Joker, which earned more than $1 billion at the global box office and remains the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. 

The new film stars  Phoenix once again in his Oscar-winning dual role as Arthur Fleck/Joker, opposite Oscar winner Gaga (A Star Is Born).

Joker: Folie À Deux finds Arthur Fleck institutionalized at Arkham awaiting trial for his crimes as Joker. 

'While struggling with his dual identity, Arthur not only stumbles upon true love, but also finds the music that's always been inside him,' a press release shared.

Phillips directed the film from a screenplay by fellow Oscar nominee Scott Silver & Phillips, based on characters from DC. 

The film was produced by Phillips, Oscar nominee Emma Tillinger Koskoff and Joseph Garner. 

Lady Gaga served as music consultant. 

Joaquin and Rooney quietly welcomed their first child, son River,  in August 2020. Mara confirmed she was expecting a second child in February.

Mark Wahlberg famously passed up the opportunity to star in Brokeback Mountain due to feeling 'creeped out' by its same-sex storyline.

Wahlberg, now 53, and best known for roles in The Departed and The Transformers franchise, could have starred in the 2005 Ang Lee epic - which became one of the most successful LGBTQ+ films in history and netted three Oscars.

However Wahlberg confessed to feeling uncomfortable due to the 'graphic, descriptive' nature of the script - which tells the tale of two American cowboys turned gay lovers - with the roles ultimately played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal.

In a 2007 interview Wahlberg said the film's first sex scene between the cowboys Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist left him convinced the film 'wasn't his deal',

He said: 'I met with Ang Lee in that movie, I read 15 pages of the script and got a little creeped out.

Wahlberg added: 'the spitting on the hand, getting ready to do the thing.'

'Obviously, it was done in taste - look how it was received.'

The National Enquirer reported at the time that Wahlberg’s Catholic priest advised him to pass on the project.

Before Lee - who would win the Best Director Oscar for the film - took on the project, My Own Private Idaho filmmaker Gus Van Sant was approached to direct, and he revealed numerous A-listers had been offered, and passed, on the project.

He told IndieWire in 2018: 'Nobody wanted to do it. I was working on it, and I felt like we needed a really strong cast, like a famous cast. That wasn’t working out. I asked the usual suspects: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and Ryan Phillippe. They all said no.

'Yes, all those young gentlemen (at the time) turned down the project, for various reasons.'

The film earned widespread critical acclaim and landed eight Oscar nominations including  Supporting Actor and Best Actor Oscar nods for Gyllenhaal and Ledger.

It took home the awards for Best Director, Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay.