Joaquin Phoenix is back in the news. Finally. The trailer for his new movie I’m Still Here has been released. (You’ll find the trailer below.) The “mockumentary” is directed by Casey Affleck.

So, what is Joaquin up to? Did he pull an Andy Kaufman style stunt to create buzz for his movie? Or did he really want to jump out of the Hollywood scene and be a rapper? Perhaps this new movie will answer these kinds of questions. Then again maybe it won’t.

Will we finally get an answer to the question, “Whatever happened to Joaquin Phoenix?”

Sean “Diddy” Combs said that Joaquin’s singing was “for real … if he’s not for real, he tricked me. We went in to the studio, did a record, mixed a record and everything.”

Combs also appears in the trailer and has this to say about Joaquin in reference to a drop of water: “That’s you. You’re drops of water, and you’re on top of the mountaintop of success. But one day you start sliding down the mountain and you think ‘Wait a minute, I’m a mountaintop water drop. I don’t belong in this valley, this river, this low, dark ocean with all these drops of water.’ Then one day it gets hot and you slowly evaporate in the air.”

According to the web site IMDb this is the plot summary released by Magnolia Pictures: “I’m Still Here is a portrayal of a tumultuous year in the life of actor Joaquin Phoenix. With remarkable access, the documentary follows the Oscar-nominee as he announces his retirement from a successful film career in the fall of 2008 and sets off to reinvent himself as a hip hop musician. The film is a portrait of an artist at a crossroads and explores notions of courage and creative reinvention, as well as the ramifications of a life spent in the public eye.”

Sounds deep. Answers or not, Joaquin’s performance art project hits theaters on Sept. 10, 2010.

After watching the trailer I only have this to say: “Get in my belly!”