World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy has been told that a rumored New York Film Festival screening of Todd Phillips‘ Joker: Folie a Deux, allegedly slotted to screen in the festival’s Spotlight section, been “put on hold” due to the intensely negative industry reaction to Joaquin Phoenix‘s sudden abandonment of Todd Haynes‘ 1930s gay relationship drama. Phoenix freaked and walked just before shooting was about to begin in Mexico.

HE agrees it was very bad form — rash, traumatic, wildly unprofessional — for Phoenix to bail on the Haynes film, even though I felt personally relieved about not having to watch it down the road. There are tens of millions of fellows like myself who regarded the prospect of watching the 50ish Phoenix perform ultra-graphic gay sex scenes…I shudder at the mere thought. In this sense I am not the least bit sorry that the Haynes project is kaput. On the other hand I fully understand the rage Phoenix has incurred on a professional and political basis. A lot of people have suffered financially because of Phoenix’s apparent instability.

Phoenix will nonetheless be in Venice for the world premiere of Folie a Deux, and you know he’s going to be grilled big-time about the Haynes project at the post-screening press conference.

The questions will be tough for Phoenix to answer as there’s no way he can avoid looking like an unstable headcase. Sample question: Why did Phoenix bring a gay love story to Haynes and urge a no-holds-barred approach to the sex scenes only to get cold feet at the last moment? Does he not know his own artistic temperament? His own basic thoughts and convictions? Is he some kind of undisciplined mood shifter who has no center?

How Phoenix answers this and other related questions will determine the tone of press coverage henceforth and affect the general award-season conversation about Folie a Deux.

I’m very sorry this happened as my expectations for Phillips’ film couldn’t be higher. It’s a shame that the Haynes disaster is probably going to create a black-cloud effect.