Remember True Grit? Not the John Wayne one, the one that came out a few years back and starred Jeff Bridges? Remember the girl who was a total little badass and got an Oscar nomination out of the film? That girl’s name was Hailee Steinfeld, and she has joined yet another pioneer era drama with a grizzled and epic cast. This one is called The Homesman and stars, as far as I can see, everybody worth watching.
Steinfeld joins a cast that includes Tommy Lee Jones, Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank, John Lithgow, and James Spader. The Homesman follows an outlaw (we presume Jones) who helps a schoolteacher (Swank) to escort three mentally unstable women from Nebraska to Iowa. Steinfeld will play a poor teenage girl named Tabitha Hutchinson, but not much more about her part is forthcoming.
Sound a bit too close to True Grit? Not to worry, because Steinfeld is not being typecast. She’s appearing in this year Ender’s Game, in Romeo and Juliet, Can A Song Save Your Life? and Hateship, Loveship – all in post-production right now. So we’re going to be seeing a lot more of her from now on.
Seriously, though, take a look at the cast for The Homesman. The sheer gravitas of it is enough to put me in the front row opening weekend. Tommy Lee Jones is doing the directing himself, but it’s at least a genre that he has some serious experience with. And with such a cast backing him up – made almost entirely of veterans and Oscar nominees – there’s little chance that it can go wrong. Or if it does go wrong, then it will be a pretty spectacular failure.
Do you look forward to seeing Steinfeld on the big screen once more? What about the cast of The Homesman? C’mon, how awesome is this?! Everyone get excited!
