Making small films that pack a big emotional wallop, and creating an intimate HBO series (“Looking“) that earned a cult following, Andrew Haigh is one of the finest filmmakers of the moment. He’s also quietly keeping very busy. As he works on post-production on his next film, “Lean On Pete,” he’s gearing up a new limited-series for TV.
First up, his new movie, which stars Steve Buscemi, Charlie Plummer and Chloe Sevigny, has unveiled its debut image and its arresting one. The coming-of-age story, based on the book by Willy Vlautin, tells the story of a teenager whose life is changed when he starts caring for a racehorse. Here’s synopsis:
Charley Thompson is a 15-year-old who has no stability in his life. He wants a home, food on the table and a high school he can attend for more than part of a year. But as the son of a single father working in warehouses finding some stability is hard.
Hoping for a new start they move to Portland where Charley takes a summer job, and becomes best friends with a failing racehorse named Lean on Pete.
READ MORE: ‘Looking: The Movie’ Provides A Fitting Tribute And Closure To The HBO Series [Review]
No release date yet, but I’d bet on a premiere in Berlin or Cannes next year, and A24 have already inked a deal to distribute the picture stateside.
Once he’s all done with that, Deadline reports that Haigh will roll up his sleeves for “The North Water.” The six-part limited series for BBC will see the filmmaker write and direct the adaptation of Ian McGuire‘s book that will tell the story of a surgeon who heads to the Arctic on a whaling expedition only to encounter a psychopath on board the ship. Yowsers. Here’s the synopsis:
A nineteenth-century whaling ship sets sail for the Arctic with a killer aboard in this dark, sharp, and highly original tale that grips like a thriller.
Behold the man: stinking, drunk, and brutal. Henry Drax is a harpooner on the Volunteer, a Yorkshire whaler bound for the rich hunting waters of the arctic circle. Also aboard for the first time is Patrick Sumner, an ex-army surgeon with a shattered reputation, no money, and no better option than to sail as the ship’s medic on this violent, filthy, and ill-fated voyage.
In India, during the Siege of Delhi, Sumner thought he had experienced the depths to which man can stoop. He had hoped to find temporary respite on the Volunteer, but rest proves impossible with Drax on board. The discovery of something evil in the hold rouses Sumner to action. And as the confrontation between the two men plays out amid the freezing darkness of an arctic winter, the fateful question arises: who will survive until spring?
With savage, unstoppable momentum and the blackest wit, Ian McGuire’s The North Water weaves a superlative story of humanity under the most extreme conditions.
Wow, that sounds like a big gear shift for Haigh, and we can’t wait to see what he does with the material. No word if this will come before or after Haigh’s planned biopic on Alexander McQueen, but let’s hope it isn’t sitting around too long.
Lean on Pete