Joaquin Phoenix may join John C. Reilly in The Sisters Brothers adaptation

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Last year we brought you word that John C. Reilly will star in THE SISTERS BROTHERS, an adaptation of the Patrick deWitt novel of the same name, and now Deadline has learned that Joaquin Phoenix is in early negotiations to join him in the film. This comes on the heels of a recent report that Phoenix is also being eyed to play Jesus Christ opposite opposite Rooney Mara in Garth Davis' MARY MAGDALENE.

Palme d’Or-winning French director Jacques Audiard (DHEEPAN, A PROPHET) will make his English-languade debut with the project, and Reilly is also producing the movie through his production banner.

Book description:

Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn't share his brother's appetite for whiskey and killing, he's never known anything else. But their prey isn't an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm's gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a living–and whom he does it for.

With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt pays homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable comic tour de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters–losers, cheaters, and ne'er-do-wells from all stripes of life–and told by a complex and compelling narrator, it is a violent, lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier that beautifully captures the humor, melancholy, and grit of the Old West and two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love.

Joaquin Phoenix is pretty pick when it comes to his film projects, so I'm more than a little excited that he's in talks to team up with Reilly and Audiard. Phoenix was most recently seen in Woody Allen's IRRATIONAL MAN, and his next role will be in Casey Affleck's FAR BRIGHT STAR.