Pedro Pascal is set to star in the upcoming gay romance drama De Noche, from Todd Haynes. Filming on the drama is set to begin next month, with Pascal co-starring alongside the previously announced Danny Ramirez.
De Noche follows a passionate and unexpected love affair between Pascal's hard-boiled detective and a younger boarding schoolteacher (played by Ramirez) in 1930s Los Angeles. With the city overtaken by corruption and the world on the brink of war, the two men become targets of the city’s corrupt political machine and are forced to flee to Mexico.
Pascal replaced the previously announced Joaquin Phoenix, who left the project in 2024 only five days before production was scheduled to begin. Phoenix has not given any reason for his exit.
May December and Carol director Haynes is known for tackling complex, intimate relationships. He received an Oscar nomination for the former's screenplay. He co-wrote De Noche with his frequent collaborator Jon Raymond.
In a statement about his new film, Hayes said: "This story, with Pedro Pascal and Danny Ramirez in the two leads, arises out of an era - all too relevant to our own - of domestic corruption, racial exploitation and global terror.
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“But it emerges as a testament to the inexplicable powers of desire and love to survive and overcome even the most crippling of human barriers."
The film has been rumoured to be an NC-17 rating in the US (the equivalent of a BBFC 18 rating), with explicitly graphic intimate scenes.
Pascal is well known to blockbuster and arthouse fans alike, starring in films such as The Fantastic Four: First Steps alongside smaller indie films like Ari Aster's Eddington and Celine Song's Materialists. De Noche marks Pascal's first collaboration with Haynes.
Ramirez will be familiar to Marvel fans, starring as Joaquin Torres aka Falcon in Captain America: Brave New World and in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. He also appeared in Top Gun: Maverick.
Pascal and Ramirez previously appeared together in HBO's The Last of Us, though it was confirmed that Ramirez has left the series and is being replaced in the role of Manny by Jorge Lendeborg Jr.
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