Joaquin Phoenix is set to star in You Were Never Really Here, the new feature from Scottish director Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin).

The feature, described as a character-driven thriller, focuses on a war veteran troubled by his past, who now works to rescue woman from sex traffickers. When he tries to rescue a girl from a brothel in New York, things go horribly wrong, setting off a wave of violence and vengeance.

Ramsay will direct from her own script, adapted from a novella by Jonathan Ames, the creator of HBO show Bored to Death.

Insiders, the L.A.-based sales company headed by Wild Bunch co-chief Vincent Maraval, is handling the project and shopping it to buyers in Cannes. Insiders is handling all territories outside of France and the U.K., which are being handled by France's Why Not Productions, a co-producers on the project alongside shingle Page 114. The U.K.’s Film4 and the British Film Institute supported development of the project.

You Were Never Really Here is Ramsay's first since We Need to Talk About Kevin, which premiered in the Cannes competition in 2011. The film about the mother of a boy who carries out a school massacre received a Golden Globe nomination for star Tilda Swinton.

Insiders, launched just ahead of Cannes last year, has its first film in competition at the festival this year with Jeff Nichols' Loving, which premieres Monday.

A24 is in final negotiations to acquire “You Were Never Really Here,” Variety has learned.

The drama, starring Joaquin Phoenix and directed by Lynne Ramsay (“We Need to Talk About Kevin”), is one of the buzzier projects to be sold on the Cannes market. The story focuses on a former war veteran (played by Phoenix) who tries to save women trapped in the world of sex trafficking. It’s seen as being a revenge fantasy in the style of “Drive.”

Ramsay adapted the script, which is based on the novel by Jonathan Ames.

Production will begin this summer.

Sources tell Variety that A24 and Amazon Studios were in a bidding war for the movie.

Three days in, the Cannes Film Festival market has been unusually slow, with few big, splashy deals for pre-packaged projects or films that are screening in the festival.

Sales for “You Were Never Really Here” are being handled by Insiders, the company launched last year by Wild Bunch’s founder Vincent Maraval.

Rosa Attab and Pascal Caucheteux are producing the pic for Why Not Productions.

Alessandro Nivola is set to join Joaquin Phoenix in Lynne Ramsay’s “You Were Never Really Here.” He has also nabbed a co-starring role opposite Juno Temple in Liz Garcia’s “One Percent More Humid.”

Based on the Jonathan Ames novel, the story follows Albert Votto (Nivola), a New York politician who finds himself at the center of a sinister web of organized crime. Ramsay will write and direct the film, which Amazon Studios is financing and distributing, and Page 114 is producing.

Nivola plays Gerald McCann in “One Percent More Humid,” a literature professor who has an affair with a grieving student (Temple). Julia Garner and Olivia Luccardi are also set to star.

Garcia is writing and directing, as well as producing, along with Joshua Harto.

Nivola was recently nominated for a Tony Award for his performance opposite Bradley Cooper in “The Elephant Man” on Broadway. Upcoming films include Barry Levinson’s Bernie Madoff drama “The Wizard of Lies” with Robert De Niro, and Jaron Albertin’s indie “Weightless.”

Nivola can currently be seen in Nicolas Winding Refn’s “The Neon Demon.”

He is represented by CAA and Management 360.

Lord Shade wrote:He should be playing Darkseid at the moment, not some bearded bum in some art-house thriller from some Scottish director.

MyCocaine wrote:

Lord Shade wrote:He should be playing Darkseid at the moment, not some bearded bum in some art-house thriller from some Scottish director.

Surely, you're joking. Lynne Ramsay is one of the great directors working today.

Phoenix continues to seek out auteurs. PTA, Woody Allen and Spike Jonze all within a few years.

Him turning down BvS, Star Wars and Doctor Strange is a testament to his great decision making.