Looking to re-establish herself after unexpectedly dropping out of Jane Got A Gun before it started shooting, Lynne Ramsay has set up new thriller You Were Never Really Here and has landed Joaquin Phoenix to star.
Adapted from Jonathan Ames' novella by Ramsay herself, the story follows a a damaged war veteran (Phoenix), who now spends his days as a freelancer rescuing women from the sex trafficking trade.
But when his latest job, retrieving a girl from a Manhattan brothel goes wrong, he gets the brunt of a powerful and corrupt opposition, but ends up finding the will to fight back.
Film4 and the BFI helped to develop the thriller, which doesn't yet have a timetable to shoot. Still, sales company Insiders is offering the title at this year's Cannes Film Market to help drum up more financing.
Phoenix, who has several potential projects, is a producer on a new documentary called CAMP, about a leadership and art camp that helps American teenagers.