So, there you go. Ari Aster’s “Disappointment Boulevard” is now called “Beau is Afraid,” according to A24. In that same tweet, a poster could be seen of a young boy in animation form.
In 2011, Aster directed a short film titled “Beau.” Described as a “decades-spanning surrealist horror film set in an alternate present,” 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.
You can actually watch “Beau is Afraid” on YouTube.
Aster turned heads at Sundance 2018 with his incredibly realized neo-horror film “Hereditary.” The following year he polarized movie fans with his love/hate statement “Midsommar,” a film I was lukewarm on, upon initial viewing, until I finally caught up with the 3-hour director’s cut at home and had a total 180 opinion reversal.
Edward Berger seems to have settled on what comes next. His Lance Armstrong biopic, starring Austin Butler, is now holding casting calls, with production eyed for January.