You’ve got to admire the perseverance. John Hillcoat (The Road) has been trying to get an adaptation of Matt Bondurant’s novel The Wettest County In The World off the ground for well over a year now. At first it was set up at Paramount, but they dropped it as they couldn’t see the commercial possibilities.
A few months later, Hillcoat managed to attach Shia Labeouf, Ryan Gosling and Scarlet Johnasson to the film, with Paul Dano and Michael Shannon’s name being bandied about, but he still coudn’t get financiers to bite. While many would have given up, the LA Times now reports that LaBeouf is still onboard, and while the rest of the cast seems to have drfited away, Tom Hardy has now joined him.
However there’s no news on whether this means Hillcoat actually has the money to make the movie, or if it’s just another attempt to secure funding, based on a hot young cast (a ploy that wouldn have worked a couple of years ago, but not always in these credit crunch times).
The film itself would be based on the story of Wettest County author Matt Bondurant’s grandfather and two great-uncles, who were part of a fierce criminal gang at the centre of the US’s moonshine trade during prohibition. Described as a sweeping epic set in the American south, the story also follows a writer named Sherwood Anderson, who is on the trail of the bootlegging gang. And with a screenplay by Nick Cave, it should certainly be worth seeing if they can get the money together to make it.