It might sound odd that director John Hillcoat — a man who’s not always the fastest worker — is already moving along with his Wettest County follow-up, but his Prohibition-set tale of bootleggers has been delayed again and again, all the way to August 31st. So, with some extra time on his hands and the good graces of Annapurna, it sounds like he’s already kicked off work on his fifth feature, Triple Nine.

ThePlaylist noticed that, on Annapurna’s website, his name, a nifty little graphic, and the title are presented alongside several other, pending projects on the company’s slate — The Master, Cogan’s Trade, and Wettest County among them. While reports of Nine going into pre-production are new to you and I (unless you work for Megan Ellison), we’ve still known about the project since August of 2010, when Shia LaBeouf was eyeing the Matt Cooke-penned drama.

A plot description can be read below:

“A group of crooked cops planning a major heist realize they must shoot one of their own in order to get away with it. The lead character is an upstanding young officer who they choose as their victim.”

One would reasonably assume that the story’s basic gist has been kept intact, but we know nothing of LaBeouf, the also-rumored Chris Pine and Jeff Bridges, or even Warner Bros. still being on board — if any of them were on board in the first place, that is. Despite this dearth of foreknowledge, I’m nevertheless intrigued by and hopeful about Triple Nine, though with Wettest County not hitting for almost another seven months, it could be a while before any further updates pile in. I wouldn’t hold my breath for them right now, at the very least.

Have you been a fan of Hillcoat’s work, and would you like to see Triple Nine come together?