Hot of the heels of its World Premiere at Telluride, and gearing up for its North American bow at TIFF, Scott Cooper‘s “Hostiles” is the biggest acquisition title on the festival slate. And with buzz already swirling around Christian Bale‘s performance, a pretty damn terrific new trailer is here to stoke anticipation.
The crew assembled here is pretty incredible with Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi, Adam Beach, Ben Foster, Jesse Plemons, Rory Cochrane, and Q’orianka Kilcher rounding out the ensemble cast, with cinematography by Masanobu Takayanagi (“Spotlight,” “Out Of The Furnace”) and a score by Max Richter (“The Leftovers,” “Waltz With Bashir“). That’s not to mention the story, which offers a compelling tale, set in 1892, and follows an Army captain who agrees to escort a dying Cheyenne war chief through dangerous territory. Here’s the synopsis from TIFF:
Fresh from 2015’s gangster film Black Mass, Scott Cooper has turned to another venerable American genre, the western, for Hostiles, the raw and compelling tale of an embittered and battle-hardened US Cavalry officer ordered to accompany a Cheyenne war chief and his family back to their tribal lands in Montana. The flinty-eyed Captain Blocker (Christian Bale) has seen more than his fair share of violence and bloodletting on the frontier, but this mission, which he is forced to accept, is a particularly bitter pill to swallow: Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) has been his mortal enemy for years due to a conflict that killed many of Blocker’s friends. The Chief has also lost friends in the conflict.
Setting out through dangerous territory, much of it inhabited by hostile tribes, the small band of soldiers and Cheyenne navigate the beautiful prairies and wilds of the west, while facing a series of challenges. Blocker — much like John Wayne’s character in the John Ford classic The Searchers — is a racist, a man who harbours a deep hatred towards the former prisoners now placed in his care. As the challenges mount, Blocker is forced to confront his own bigotry while carrying out his orders. To complicate matters, the ragged party is joined by a stricken widow (Rosamund Pike) who has just seen her family massacred in a raid.
No release date for “Hostiles,” but I’ll be shocked if it’s not released by someone by the end of the year. [Deadline]