Emma Stone, Joaquin Phoenix, and Pedro Pascal to star in Ari Aster’s next movie, which is a Western

Ari Aster was a little dismayed by the reaction to Beau Is Afraid, not so much the fact that some people didn’t care for it but the fact that some people decided they didn’t care for it without actually seeing it, but his next movie shouldn’t have that problem. Four Joaquin Phoenixes on the Beau Is Afraid poster didn’t do it for most people, but how about one Joaquin Phoenix, one Best Actress winner Emma Stone, one Pedro Pascal, and one Austin Butler? Because that’s the cast Aster has put together for Eddington, his new movie, which starts production next week.

This comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which says Eddington is about a “small-town New Mexico sheriff with lofty aspirations,” and A24, in a post on its Instagram, calls it a “contemporary Western.” But that’s all bullshit, right? We’re not buying any of that for a single goddamn second? Oh sure, Eddington will be about a small-town sheriff with lofty aspirations in the way that Aster’s Hereditary was about a mother who makes miniatures, or the way that Midsommar was about a college student helping her boyfriend’s friend study ancient European traditions, or the way that Beau Is Afraid was about man visiting his mother.

For as much as some people were put off by Beau Is Afraid, there would likely be riots if Ari Aster’s follow-up skewed so far in the other direction that it was literally just about a small-town sheriff solving small-town mysteries (even with that great cast). But, then again, it would be a particularly Aster-esque zag to go full norm-core. You never want people to be able to guess your next move when you’re building a career like his… except we did just guess it, so now he shouldn’t do that! Aster, you’ve done it again!