Todd Haynes says his Pedro Pascal gay romance De Noche will “most likely be an R-rated film”, a step back from the NC-17 he once expected.
By Marvin Valdez
The director gave the update to Variety on the red carpet at the opening gala of the Lumière Festival in Lyon, France, on Saturday 10 October. Filming is finished, but there is no distributor or release date yet. The R is Haynes’s expectation, not an official rating. No rating has been announced by the Motion Picture Association (MPA), which classifies films in the US.
Why Not NC-17?
The project began with Joaquin Phoenix in the lead. In 2023, Haynes said Phoenix was pushing to make the film more sexually explicit, which would likely have earned it an NC-17. Phoenix then quit days before filming in 2024, and the production collapsed. It was revived in August 2025 with Pascal in the lead.
Haynes did not say whether the change came from edits or a different approach to the intimate scenes. He did say he saw no need to make the film’s visual language “prurient”.
“What’s going on between the two men is so complex and so moving, but ultimately, it’s a love story,” he said. “They’re exposing themselves to each other, and they’re exploring things about their masculinity, their vulnerability.”
What Is “De Noche” About?
Set in 1938 Los Angeles, the film follows an affair between a police officer and a schoolteacher that eventually takes them to Mexico. Pascal stars opposite Danny Ramirez (Top Gun: Maverick), who first joined the project in 2024 when Phoenix was still attached. Filming began in Mexico in March.
Haynes co-wrote the script with Jonathan Raymond. Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler of Killer Films, Haynes’s longtime producers, are on board.
“Anyone can identify with what’s happening,” Haynes said. “The sort of armor of masculinity is particular to men.”
De Noche is Haynes’s first queer love story since Carol in 2015. Pascal and Phoenix starred together in Ari Aster’s Eddington last year.
Source: DNA
