A recent /Film report suggests that director John Hillcoat and star Shia LaBeouf could be teaming up sometime in the near future. The project? Triple Nine, a crime drama written by Matt Cooke, and to be produced by Steve Golin (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Babel). The story, which I must admit is rather intriguing, goes something like this:

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.

Warner Bros. is showing the most interest in the project at this point. It is also worth noting that Chris Pine (Star Trek) is eying a role in the film.

Hillcoat last worked on The Road, an overlooked 2009 film that I was very impressed with. He also has The Proposition, an acclaimed western, under his belt. LaBeouf‘s last film was the mega blockbuster Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and currently he is scheduled to appear in only one other film prior to the third Transformers effort: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, which opens on September 24.

Would you like to see Hillcoat and LaBeouf working together?

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After releasing The Road last year, director John Hillcoat is planning to make a film starring Christian Bale titled The Revenant, but in the meantime he’s also likely attached to another project titled The Red Circle, which is a remake of the 1970 crime thriller Le cercle rouge. This news comes to us from Firstshowing. Read the full story

A few months back, John Hillcoat’s much-anticipated, potentially star-studded Prohibition epic The Promised Land, starring Ryan Gosling, Shia LeBeouf and Amy Adams from a screenplay by the ever-talented Nick Cave, fell apart without funding. This caused Hillcoat to spout out some sad, well-deserved opinions about the state of the film industry.

Now, it looks as though the director has returned from the brink, to deliver more standard fare, i.e. a revenge action flick starring Christian Bale. The project is an adaptation of The Revenant, a 2003 novel by Michael Punke, written for the screen by Mark L. Smith (Vacancy, The Hole 3D). [The Playlist]

Here’s a synopsis of the novel via CHUD:

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Just before the release of John Hillcoat’s film The Road in early October 2009, rumors began to fly of the possible story and cast of his next project. The script which was to be titled The Promised Land is an adaptation of Matt Bondurant’s novel The Wettest County in the World. The film was scripted by Nick Cave and set to possibly star Shia LaBeouf, Ryan Gosling, and Amy Adams. In a recent interview published in the UK, Hillcoat states that the film is dead thanks to the “apocalypse” of the film industry. From a diary printed in the UK paper “The Telegraph” he writes: Read the full story

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?

Dimension Films | USA | 119 min

The Road is a mostly successful adaptation of a truly masterful novel. While some aspects fall flat due to the film being faithful to a fault, it still works as a whole for the most part. Viggo Mortenson’s excellent performance, Hillcoat’s distinct vision for a violent world, and a few moments of pure poetry make this a worthwhile journey.

The Man (Viggo Mortensen) and the Boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) are caught in a post-apocalyptic world striving for survival. The Man only carries a pistol with a few bullets for defense and avoids contact with others. The world has turned into turmoil with most people looking out for their own gain, most notably the cannibals. They travel by day on the road where they’re heading South. The Man is sick and he knows it. His main goal is to keep his boy alive and get him to a safe place. Along this journey they face psychopaths, a well hearted old man, and a few moments of pure darkness. Read the full story

Yahoo has premiered a new trailer for John Hillcoat‘s (The Proposition) The Road, based on Cormac McCarthy‘s (No Country For Old Men) novel. The film stars Viggo Mortensen, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall and Charlize Theron. Check it out below.
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John Hillcoat‘s The Road has been moved from October 16th to November 25th, 2009. The film, starring Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron, is leaving Where The Wild Things Are + Law Abiding Citizen and joining The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Ninja Assasssin, Old Dogs and the limited release of Disney’s The Princess and The Frog. Another Weinstein release, Nine, is also opening that day, so it I can only assume that film will get pushed back as well.

The early reviews for The Road have a been a bit shaky, could this be a reason for the push? I’m very interested to see it at Toronto International Film Fest in a few days. Check back here for an exclusive review.

What do you think of the The Road being pushed back?

The trailer for John Hillcoat‘s The Road is finally here. The film which was delayed from last year’s Oscar season stars Viggo Mortensen in a post-apocalyptic tale of a man and his son trying to survive by any means possible. The adaptation is based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy, who wrote 2007′s best picture No Country For Old Men. Check out the trailer in HD after the jump.

Check out the trailer >>

…according to one person from Esquire Magazine. Tom Chiarella has seen the film and posted the first official review. Despite early negative buzz it seems like John Hillcoat’s feature film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy‘s The Road is quite the masterpiece. Here are a few quotes from review:

“The Road is no tease. It is a brilliantly directed adaptation of a beloved novel, a delicate and anachronistically loving look at the immodest and brutish end of us all. You want them to get there, you want them to get there, you want them to get there — and yet you do not want it, any of it, to end.”

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