The news well on Bitterroot has been dry for an entire six months now, but Variety‘s provided an update that should make any inconvenient waiting worth the trouble. When it comes to Chris Milk‘s directorial debut, it’s said that Nick Nolte — a man who, thanks to the untimely death of some horses, suddenly found himself with a freed-up schedule — is currently circling the lead role.

Written by Michael Gilio, the Black List script revolves around an elder farmer whose money was stolen by a corrupt bank. So, with no one offering any helpful services in this extreme time of need, the gentleman “saddles up his horse, puts on his duster, grabs his guns and trots off to Bitterroot to get his money back.” God, if that doesn’t sound like the perfect role for Nolte…

But, really, you’d be very hard-pressed to find an actor capable of embodying this sort of character with that same weight and level of onscreen power; he might even prove be the glue that binds Bitterroot together as a whole when the dust settles. A shooting start hasn’t been stipulated at the moment, but his casting could allow everything else to converge and let cameras roll relatively soon. Blind Wink’s Gore Verbinski and Jonathan Krauss have elected to produce, while Megan Ellison is financing through Annapurna Pictures.

Does Bitterroot sound like a good choice for Nolte?