Tag: Walter Hill

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Dead For A Dollar’: Rachel Brosnahan Joins Willem Dafoe & Christoph Waltz In Walter Hill’s Western

Walter Hill (48 Hours, The Warriors) is tackling a new western thriller Dead For A Dollar that stars two-time Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained) and Oscar-nominee Willem Dafoe (The Grand Budapest Hotel,

Dead For A Dollar follows a famed bounty hunter (Waltz) who runs into his sworn enemy, a professional gambler and outlaw that he had sent to prison years before (Dafoe), while on a mission to find and return the wife of a successful businessman who is being held hostage in Mexico.

Deadline is reporting that The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel actress Rachel Brosnahan has taken the role of the wife being held in Mexico.

It’ll be interesting to see how mature the project will be as Walter Hill is known for his grounded action pics.

We’re hearing that filming is expected to take place New Mexico.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

‘Dead For A Dollar’: Christoph Waltz To Play Another Bounty Hunter Opposite Willem Dafoe In New Western Thriller From Director Walter Hill

Another interesting project is assembling at the Cannes Film Market, as Deadline reports that writer/director Walter Hill (48 Hours, Red Heat, The Warriors, The Driver) is putting together a western called Dead For A Dollar that will see Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz playing another bounty hunter after playing on in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. The western will also see Willem Dafoe (John Wick, The Lighthouse) play someone that Waltz’s bounty hunter had sent to prison years ago.

The outlet added an extensive plot synopsis for Dead For A Dollar’s script that was penned by Hill and Matt Harris, which you can read below but might have a handful of spoilers.

Dead For A Dollar is set in New Mexico Territory, Chihuahua, during 1897. The story will follow Max Borlund (Waltz), a famed bounty hunter, hired to find and return Rachel Price, the politically progressive wife of Nathan Price, a successful Santa Fe businessman. Max is told she has been kidnapped by an African American army deserter, Elijah Jones, and is being held for ransom in Mexico. When Max goes south of the border he soon runs across his sworn enemy, expatriate American Joe Cribbens (Dafoe), a professional gambler, sometime outlaw, who Max had tracked down and sent to prison years before. When Borlund finds Rachel Price and Elijah hiding deep in the wilds of the Mexican desert, he discovers that Rachel has willingly fled from an abusive husband, and the runaway soldier is, in fact, her romantic partner. Max is now faced with a dilemma: does he return the wife back across the border to the man who hired him, or does he aid Rachel’s bid for freedom and fight off ruthless hired guns and his long-time criminal rival, Joe Cribbens?

The title an obvious nod to Sergio Leone’s iconic Dollars Trilogy, the trio of films was landmark work in the spaghetti western sub-genre.

Walter Hill as a writer worked on Alien (uncredited), Aliens, Alien 3, The Warriors, Red Heat, 48 Hours, The Driver, and Another 48 Hours.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

‘Alien’ Series Officially Coming From Ridley Scott and Noah Hawley – Will Be Set On Earth

Over a year ago I first reported at HN Entertainment that there was a rumbling of a potential live-action Alien series from producer Ridley Scott was in the works at Hulu and later on it was revealed that Fargo‘s Noah Hawley had attempted to pitch an Alien series then played coy about show’s current status when Deadline confronted him with sourced information that it was happening.

READ MORE: Noah Hawley Suggests His Unmade ‘Alien’ Series At FX Would Have Been Character-Driven and Further Explore The Universe

There was a sense after HBO Max announced that Ridley Scott’s mature sci-fi series Raised By Wolves was their their most viewed original on the streaming service, that it was only a matter of time before Disney came to their senses with a series set within the Alien universe.

During the Disney Investor Day event earlier in the week, it was officially announced that the series was moving forward at FX on Hulu with a combined effort from Ridley Scott and Noah Hawley. Nothing was revealed outside the project will be the first to be set on a near future Earth, of course, they’re ignoring the Alien vs. Predator films.

Noah had recently telegraphed in an interview with the Observer his series would focus on the human-side of the Alien universe which is just as dangerous as the xenomorphs as profits come before lives.

HAWLEY: “Alien is on some level the complete opposite of Stark Trek. It’s sort of about humanity at its worst. There’s this moment in the second film when Sigourney says, ‘I don’t know which species is worse. At least they don’t screw each other over for a percentage.’ If you look at what Aliens tends to be, it’s usually a trapped story – trapped in a ship, trapped in a prison, etc. And because the Alien has this life cycle to it, where it goes from egg, to chestburster, to xenomorph, there becomes a certain routine to it.”

“I thought it would be interesting if you could expand. If you’re going to make something for television, you’ve got 10 hours let’s say. Even if you have a lot of action, like two hours, then you’re still going to have eight hours left. So what is the show about? That’s what I tried to talk to them about. As I did with Legion, the exercise is: Let’s take the superhero stuff out of the show and see if it’s still a great show. What’s the show about? Let’s take the Alien out of the show. What’s the show about? What are the themes, who are the characters and what is the human drama? Then we drop the aliens back in and we go, ‘This is great. Not only is there great human drama, but there’s aliens!’”

READ MORE: Walter Hill Reveals ‘Alien V’ Script Co-Written With David Giler Is From March 2020 – Teases Retconning ‘Alien 3-4’?

READ MORE: Ridley Scott Says Next ‘Alien’ Film Still In Development – Teases It Might Be Something New?

Ridley Scott has suggested in various interviews that his Alien: Awakening (working title) could still happen and was in development at 20th Century Studios. A third incarnation of Alien V was recently being written on spec by franchise screenwriters/producers Walter Hill and David Giler. The pair have worked on Scott’s Alien, James Cameron’s Aliens, and David Fincher’s Alien 3.

We’re still waiting on Disney and 20th Century Studios to make announcements concerning the feature film side.

SOURCE: DISNEY

Posted on in Film News

Walter Hill Reveals ‘Alien V’ Script Co-Written With David Giler Is From March 2020 – Teases Retconning ‘Alien 3-4’?

Last week, it was revealed by Alien franchise actress Sigourney Weaver that producer Walter Hill penned a draft for Alien 5 over a year ago. Weaver didn’t sound terribly enthusiastic about reprising the Ripley role.

Hill has now reached out to SyFy Wire and has added some new information including images of the script titled “Alien V” is dated March 13th, 2020 and is co-written by fellow franchise producer/screenwriter David Giler. The pair did rewrites on the original Alien script, worked on Aliens with James Cameron, and were behind the final version of Alien 3.

HILL: “Sigourney, as she has from the very beginning, is being too modest about her proven ability to pull off the idea — which is to tell a story that scares the pants off your date, kicks the ass of a new Xenomorph, and conducts a meditation on both the universe of the Alien franchise and the destiny of the character of Lt. Ellen Ripley.”

This would establish the pair have been more recently working on the project since Neill Blomkamp exited to purse other films and might be something they’ve been doing on their own, rather than something guided by Disney or 20th Century Studios.

Meaning that Alien V hasn’t been greenlit.

“In space nobody can hear you dream” is mentioned on the tagline, which might suggest their version could attempt to retcon both Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection via cryosleep. Blomkamp wanted to have Alien 5 a direct sequel to Aliens with bringing back characters like Hicks, Newt, and even Bishop.

I sort of get vibes from when Ridley Scott’s production company Scott Free was originally tasked to develop the Alien: Origins script with Jon Spaihts before it became the version of Prometheus we know today.

SOURCE: SYFY WIRE

Posted on in Film News

New ‘Alien 5’ 50-Page Treatment Was Penned By Franchise Producer/Screenwriter Walter Hill

We’ve been waiting to hear some update concerning the Alien franchise and while there has been some teases from Ridley Scott that his third prequel Alien: Awakening is still in development phases. A fifth Alien film starring Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley might be still in the cards despite the Neill Blomkamp incarnation of the project being placed on ice.

While speaking with Empire, Weaver revealed that she received a 50-page Alien 5 treatment 18 months ago from franchise producer and screenwriter Walter Hill. Hill has been part of the franchise since the original 1979 film and worked on scripts (including rewrites and treatments) for Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3.

She doesn’t sound as enthusiastic about Ripley’s return it as she was when Blomkamp was attached for Alien 5 as it sounds like Ridley Scott could be calling the shots.

WEAVER: “I don’t know. Ridley has gone in a different direction. Maybe Ripley has done her bit. She deserves a rest.”

I think Alien 5 is still the best way to go. Neill Blomkamp wanted to make a film that directly connected to Aliens with the return of characters such as Newt, Hicks, and Bishop after being killed-off in Alien 3, which was co-written by Walter Hill.

There is a good chance that Hill’s version might have been a continuation from Alien: Resurrection following a clone version of Ripley. Something that had been the original intention of Alien 5 when Ridley Scott and James Cameron teamed-up for their own incarnation before the studio passed to make Alien vs Predator instead.

At one point, James Cameron was able to read Neill’s script and called it “gangbusters” during an Aliens Anniversary panel at San Diego Comic-Con back in 2016.

Ridley Scott has seemingly been the main reason Alien 5 hasn’t come together as he pulled his weight at Fox to have Alien: Covenant made instead of Blomkamp’s film, essentially killing it in the process.

SOURCE: EMPIRE