After the one-two horror punch of Hereditary and Midsommar in 2018 and 2019, respectively, Ari Aster has taken a bit longer to craft his third feature. Now finally set for a 2023 release, we have the first poster which reveals a key detail.
While the film, led by Joaquin Phoenix, was announced with the title of Disappointment Blvd., earlier reports hinted it was actually Beau Is Afraid, a project Aster had been developing for some time, and is now revealed to be the official title. In 2011, he directed a short film titled Beau which would be the basis for a sequence in the feature, and an early draft of a 2014 script had circulated online.
If he is indeed drawing from original script, it’s described as a “surrealist horror film set in an alternate present,” and Phoenix’s character would play an “extremely anxious but pleasant-looking man who has a fraught relationship with his overbearing mother and never knew his father.” When his mother dies, he makes a journey home that involves some wild supernatural threats. Meanwhile, A24’s logline for the film reads “an intimate, decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time.”
With rumors of a four-hour cut circulating, hopefully we’ll learn soon what shape the film takes, along with more details. In the meantime, the first poster unveils what looks to be our main character at a younger age with Phoenix’s name taking precedence over the title.
See the poster below, along with his aforementioned 2011 short.
Update: A24 has pulled the short film from online.