Based on a promo poster on display in the American Film Market, declaring that Nick Cave was writing, John Hillcoat was directing, and Shia LaBeouf, Ryan Gosling and Amy Adams are starring in a film adaptation of the Matt Bondurant novel The Wettest County in the World, entitled The Promised Land [First Showing].

However, it has been noted on the poster the small print “credits not contractual” (courtesy of Slash Film), so the gray area continues with only the black-and-white textual promise of a potentially great film. Here is a summary of the book, courtesy of Simon and Schuster:

“Based on the true story of Matt Bondurant’s grandfather and two granduncles, The Wettest County in the World is a gripping tale of brotherhood, greed, and murder. The Bondurant Boys were a notorious gang of roughnecks and moonshiners who ran liquor through Franklin County, Virginia, during Prohibition and in the years after. Forrest, the eldest brother, is fierce, mythically indestructible, and the consummate businessman; Howard, the middle brother, is an ox of a man besieged by the horrors he witnessed in the Great War; and Jack, the youngest, has a taste for luxury and a dream to get out of Franklin. Driven and haunted, these men forge a business, fall in love, and struggle to stay afloat as they watch their family die, their father’s business fail, and the world they know crumble beneath the Depression and drought.”

It reads like a much darker version of Legends of the Fall with a lot of whiskey, so I’m in. Especially is these credits become contractual. Stay tuned and cross fingers.

Would you like the see The Promised Land with its intended cast?