NEWS: John Hillcoat's Next Project, and It's One Hell Of A Project Indeed...

It looks like rumors are indeed true, and John Hillcoat is already eyeing a new project to follow up his soon to be hit and probably Oscar contender The Road, and it’s one hell of a project indeed.

Back at the beginning of October, the trades have been circulating a rumor stating that Hillcoat was looking at filming an adaptation of Matt Durant’s novel, “The Wettest County In The World”, which, as The Playlist puts it, is a “depression-era crime drama about three brothers who ran a bootlegging gang during Prohibition.” Now, with the fact that the novel was written by a grandson of one of the men that the book is based on, this is a project to put on your must watch list, right? Well, you can add a screenwriter and leads to that mix too.

Talking to Atomic Popcorn, Hillcoat confirms that Shia Labeouf and Ryan Gosling are both attached, but that he “shouldn’t talk about it”, which basically means that it’s not all done yet. However, one thing we can be sure of is that Nick Cave, who also penned Hillcoat’s brilliant western, The Proposition, will be penning the script. Honestly, if the two rumored leads pick up their roles, the film is easily going to launch into the top 10 of my most anticipated for whatever year the film is set to be released in. The Proposition is a fantastic western, with one hell of a script, and both Gosling and LaBeouf are two of the best young actors of their generation, at least in the discussion (Gosling more so).

Here’s the books synopsis:

This family saga follows the Bondurants, bootlegging brothers runnin’ stills, runnin’ loads, and runnin’ from the law in Depression-era Virginia. The book is mainly narrated through the experience of the youngest Bondurant, Jack (in truth, a grandfather of the author), and his family’s moonshine enterprise supplies the action in a plot that evokes the culture of distilling and distributing white lightning. To optimistic Jack, bootlegging is both a bond to his older brothers, Forrest and Howard, and a means to make cash to impress a girl. Forrest, by contrast, is taciturn and suspicious: the world is violent, and he meets it on that ground. Tender of the stills and imbiber from same, burly Howard is always ready to take on the Bondurants’ enemies, corrupt law officers. Wending through this conflict in flash-forward mode is novelist Sherwood Anderson, who plumbs the Bondurant story a few years after the brothers’ climactic confrontation with the county sheriff. Descriptively gritty and emotionally resonant, novelist Bondurant dramatically projects the poverty and danger at the heart of the old-time bootlegging life.

Also, in smaller news, according to The Playlist, Hillcoat will be taking Nick Cave’s newest novel, The Death of Bunny Munro, and will be adapting it for television, as something in an HBO style, so probably a few serialized chapters as a Generation Kill style miniseries. Can’t wait.

Go see something good!