As De Noche is revived following the casting of a new leading man, Christine Vachon is happy with the new version of the film.
The producer of Todd Haynes‘ upcoming queer romance recently praised Pedro Pascal as “born to play” the lead, a year after the Golden Globe nominee stepped in for original star Joaquin Phoenix, who exited the set in 2024 and seemingly doomed the project at the time.
“If you take the Pollyanna, glass-half-full version of everything happens for a reason, maybe the reason was that this was a role Pedro was born to play. So was Danny [Ramirez],” said Vachon in an Edinburgh International Film Festival talk with Screen Daily. “Both of them are a revelation.”
Although she admitted it wasn’t “an easy situation” when Phoenix departed the project, and “it was devastating” Haynes wasn’t able to complete the film that year, the “do-over” was ultimately a benefit to the movie.
“Todd was working on some other things, and he met Pedro on the awards circuit when he was doing May December,” she recalled. “People always say to me, ‘Is Pedro as nice as he seems?’ And he is. People are so invested in him.”
Todd Haynes and Christine Vachon
Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for Museum Of The Moving Image.
Vachon added, “We’ve worked together on Materialists. It started to be one of those things that was like ‘I wonder if [Pascal would do De Noche],’ and it worked out.”
In addition to the casting change, Vachon noted that they’ve updated the film’s locale from Guadalajara to Mexico City, “which ended up being better creatively.”
Since producing Haynes’ 1991 “new queer cinema” directorial debut Poison, Vachon has since worked with the auteur on Safe (1995), Velvet Goldmine (1998), Far From Heaven (2002), I’m Not There (2007) and Carol (2015). She has also produced such films as Stonewall (1995), Kids (1995), I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), Boys Don’t Cry (1999), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001), Camp (2003) and Party Monster (2003).
Phoenix reportedly stormed off the set of Haynes’ movie in July 2024 in Guadalajara, Mexico. He was set to star alongside Ramirez (Top Gun: Maverick) as two men in the 1930s who develop an intense romantic relationship and leave Los Angeles for Mexico. Vachon was producing alongside Pam Koffler.
The project was rescued last August when Pascal took over the leading role, with production planned for earlier this year.
Haynes previously told Deadline that he and partner Jon Raymond “wrote the script with Phoenix” and would “all be sharing story credit on it together,” adding, “The earliest ideas around the story and the setting were things he came to me with a couple of years ago. We started to talk and share these conversations.”
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