Joaquin Phoenix, you just won an Oscar for playing a smelly clown! What are you going to do next? The answer: star in an A24 film for director Mike Mills. Word of this project first surfaced last year, and now, details are starting to trickle out. The plot involves Phoenix’s character traveling across the country with his nephew. That may sound like a simple indie movie, but it’s worth noting that Peter Jackson‘s WETA Digital is creating special effects for the film, suggesting something unconventional.

Fresh from his Oscar win for Joker, Joaquin Phoenix is hot right now. To be clear: Phoenix was already one of the best actors working before he slapped on some greasepaint. But his Oscar win has made him even more buzz-worthy, and that’s the sort of thing producers go gaga over. So what’s next for the actor? A new film from A24 and 20th Century Women director Mike Mills.

The film remains untitled (although it’s rumored to be called C’mon, C’mon), but Deadline has some fresh plot details. In the film, Phoenix plays an “artist left to take care of his precocious young nephew as they forge an unexpected bond over a cross country trip.” The movie will also “touch on mental illness as the boy’s father struggles with bipolar disorder.”

All of that sounds very indie-movie-ish, which is fine. But here is where things get interesting: Peter Jackson’s WETA Digital has been working on the special effects for the movie. (Note: Deadline’s report says “special effects,” but it’s likely that they actually mean “visual effects,” since special effects are practical effects done on the set and visual effects are digital effects regularly handled in post-production.) You wouldn’t expect a film with that sort of synopsis to have those kinds of effects, but here we are. Feel free to speculate wildly about what the heck they could be. Maybe Phoenix and his nephew travel across the country via one of those mobile cities from Mortal Engines.

The film also features Gaby Hoffman, Woody Norman, and Kenneth Kynt Bryan, and is aiming for an end-of-the-year release date. Mills is a strong filmmaker – 20th Century Women is fantastic – and I like the idea of Phoenix following-up something big like Joker with a smaller A24 pic. Here’s hoping this all turns out well in the end.

The post New Joaquin Phoenix Movie From Mike Mills and A24 Involves a Road Trip (and Effects From Peter Jackson’s WETA Digital) appeared first on /Film.