Eighteen years after River Phoenix died on the sidewalk outside the Viper Room in Los Angeles at the age of 23, the film he was working on at the time of his death is going to be released. Director George Sluizer has decided to complete Dark Blood, which starred River as a hermit living in the desert on a nuclear testing site, waiting for the end of the world. Sluizer plans to ask Joaquin Phoenix, River’s younger brother, to do the film’s voiceover as River’s character, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “The voices of both brothers are very much alike.” Joaquin was with River on October 31, 1993 when he collapsed and died of a heart attack due to a drug overdose. Sluizer, who kept the film hidden because he feared the footage would be confiscated and/or destroyed, says he may change the title due to copyright claims. River was an A-list actor at the time of his death, having been nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for his performance in the 1988 film Running on Empty. He’d also won Best Actor at the 1991 Venice Film Festival for his work in My Own Private Idaho.