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.

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…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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Dimension Films and 2929 Productions have announced that they will finally be releasing John Hillcoat’s (The Proposition) adaptation of  Cormac McCarthy novel The Road, on October 16th 2009. The Road was originally scheduled to be released in time for 2008 award-season, but was pushed back due to post-production issues.

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By Dan Mecca

Not that Eurocentrism has ever really gone away, but at least high-profile filmmakers were trying to conceal it with “noble” films like Crash. Hell, Hollywood even buys and sells independent projects like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon every once and a while. When considering what it was like in the 1940s/1950s, in which films like Elia Kazan’s Gentlemen’s Agreement (which won Best Picture in 1948) and Delmer Daves’ Broken Arrow were regarded as milestones of equality and filters for truth (even though both revolve around white men infiltrating minorities they are not a part of, thereby rescuing them from themselves), we have taken several big steps forward.

Thanks to the productions of recent years, usually independent of Hollywood, one can find honest cultural studies like the impressive HBO miniseries Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee or realism-drenched Westerns like John Hillcoat’s The Proposition.

However, all of this progression seems to be fading fast. How else do you explain why the new Street Fighter movie starred Chris Klein and the people behind Dragonball Evolution decided to cast uber-white Justin Chatwick and Emmy Rossum as Goku and Bulma, merely falling back on Asia’s most Americanized actor, Chow-Yun Fat, for validation. And let us not forget Jake Gyllenhaal playing Prince Dastan in Mike “Goblet of Fire” Newell’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

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Here are five new photos for John Hillcoat’s (The Proposition) film adaptation from the Cormac McCarthy (No Country For Old Men) novel, The Road. The delayed film which was scheduled for last winter, is now coming out this fall. It stars Viggo Mortensen, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall and Charlize Theron. Check out the pictures below:

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