Juliette Lewis and Peter Dinklage hope to continue their respective career highs with the upcoming Western novel adaptation “The Thicket.”
Lewis, who reigned over 2022 TV with “Yellowjackets,” “Queer as Folk,” and “Welcome to Chippendales,” plays an assassin who is tracked by a bounty hunter, portrayed by Dinklage. The actor is next set to star in the buzzy musical film “Wicked” after a slew of recent film roles including “She Came to Me,” “Cyrano,” “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” and Jerry Seinfeld’s directorial debut “Unfrosted.”
The official synopsis for “The Thicket” reads: When fierce bounty hunter Reginald Jones (Dinklage) is recruited by a desperate man to track down a ruthless killer known only as Cutthroat Bill (Lewis), he rallies a band of unlikely heroes including a grave-digging ex-slave and a street-smart woman-for-hire. Together they embark on a perilous quest to track down Cutthroat Bill that leads them into the deadly “no-man’s-land” known as…The Thicket.
Esmé Creed-Miles, Levon Hawke, Macon Blair, Andrew Schulz, James Hetfield, David Midthunder, Arliss Howard, Leslie Grace, and Gbenga Akinnagbe co-star. Grace most infamously was set to play “Batgirl” in the shelved Warner Bros. superhero film.
“The Thicket” is directed by Elliott Lester from a script by playwright Chris Kelley. The film is based on the novel written by Joe R. Lansdale.
Lester previously helmed HBO series “Nightingale” starring David Oyelowo, and films “Blitz” and “Aftermath,” the latter of which was led by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The feature was announced in 2019, with Noomi Rapace and Charlie Plummer originally cast.
The feature is produced by Dinklage and David Ginsberg of Estuary Films, along with Tubi Films. The producers include Andre L III and Gianni Nunnari, Caddy Vanasirikul and Brian O’Shea, Chad Oakes and Michael Frislev, Elliott Lester, and Shannon Gaulding.
Nunnari announced he would be producing a remake of another Western, this time “A Fistful of Dollars” reimagining. Nunnari’s Euro Gang Entertainment recently produced Roland Emmerich’s upcoming Peacock gladiator series “Those About to Die” starring Anthony Hopkins.
The executive producers are Blair Ward, Anders Erdén, Eric Harbert, Giovanna Trischitta, Nat McCormick, Danny Gusman, Robyn Norwood, and Adriana Lima, with Brooke Dulien Lester co-producing.
The film will screen at the 50th Deauville American Film Festival.
“The Thicket” premieres in theaters September 6. Check out the trailer below.