Since his 1994 debut, Little Odessa, filmmaker James Gray has been sparse with output. It took six years for him to deliver his follow-up, The Yards, and another seven years to give us We Own the Night, which premiered earlier this year at Cannes and opens in theaters on October 12. However, there won't be such a long wait for Gray's fourth film; titled Two Lovers, the film begins shooting in November with Gray regular Joaquin Phoenix and possibly Gwyneth Paltrow, who is in final negotiations. Two Lovers marks a third collaboration with Phoenix, who starred in both The Yards and We Own the Night. If there's a part somewhere for Mark Wahlberg, it could be a perfect reunion. Our own James Rocchi reviewed We Own the Night at Cannes, highlighting the performances of Phoenix and Wahlberg, who also co-starred in The Yards.

According to Variety, Two Lovers will star Phoenix as a Brooklyn man torn between two women. There's the family friend who his parents are trying to set him up with, and then there's the beautiful new neighbor who he prefers and with whom he falls in love. I'm going to go ahead and guess that Paltrow is being cast as the neighbor. The script is by Gray and Ric Menello, who wrote the Run-DMC vehicle Tougher Than Leather and who received a 'Thanks' credit for The Yards. It will be produced by Oscar-winner Donna Gigliotti (Shakespeare in Love) and Anthony Katagas (We Own the Night), while being overseen by 2929 Production's Todd Wagner, Mark Cuban and Marc Butan. If all goes well, Gray could have only a year between his third and fourth films -- we would have settled for anything fewer than five -- which will very good for his career if We Own the Night performs a lot better than his prior work.

Joaquin Phoenix looks set to follow up his critically-acclaimed work in Walk the Line by reuniting with his The Yards director, James Gray. The two will collaborate on We Own the Night, a thriller set during in the 1980s struggle between Russian organized crime and the NYPD. The story, which Gray also wrote, will focus on a night-club manager (played by Phoenix) who struggles to save his cops brother and father, both of whom are being targeted by gang hitmen. (It sounds exciting, but why is a nightclub manager trying to save cops? Can't, I don't know, other cops help them out?) Also in the cast are Robert Duvall (hopefully playing the dad) and Eva Mendes whose role is undefined, though she'll surely spend some time wandering around looking hot.

Interestingly, this movie marks a return of sorts for Gray to the subject matter of his first film (Little Odessa), which was also a crime story involving New York's Russian immigrant community. Though We Own the Night will be only his third film, Gray - who also writes all of his projects - has shown in the past that he's very good with small, emotionally intense stories. He also tends to get very strong performances from his actors, all of which make this latest effort sound awfully promising.