Only three weeks ago, we brought you the news that Christian Bale was keen to collaborate once again with his Out of the Furnace director Scott Cooper for Hostiles, a period drama revolving around a dying Cheyenne war chief.
Pre-production is moving fast, too, with Deadline now reporting that Gone Girl actress Rosamund Pike has been tapped to star as a grieving widow who journeys “through the heart of darkness.” Rooted in 1892, Cooper’s latest directorial effort is about as far removed from both Out of the Furnace and Johnny Depp-fronted mob drama Black Mass as you can imagine, which has us all the more intrigued.
Taking point as a legendary army captain, Bale’s decorated fighter “begrudgingly agrees to escort a dying Cheyenne war chief and his family back to tribal lands. Making the harrowing and perilous journey from an isolated Army outpost in New Mexico to the grasslands of Montana, the former rivals encounter a young widow (Pike) whose family was murdered on the plains.”
Lifted from a screenplay that has existed in some shape of form since the late 80s, Donald Stewart is the key scribe nurturing Hostiles into a feature film, while John Lesher and Ken Kao are attached to produce Hostiles via Waypoint Entertainment.
Scott Cooper is eyeing a July start date for Hostiles, which would align his period epic for a theatrical release at some point in early 2017.
