Last summer it looked like it was all over for The Wettest County in The World, an adaptation of Matt Bondurant's book. Despite director John Hillcoat attracting interest from the the likes of Shia LaBeouf, Ryan Gosling, Paul Dano and Scarlet Johansson, no studio wanted to fund the period pic after Columbia put it into tunraround.
However a few months ago the film came back from limbo, with LaBeouf still attached, but now with Tom Hardy instead of Ryan Gosling, with Jessica Chastain also attached. At the European FIlm Market, THR reports that some more cast members have joined, with the previously rumour Mia Wasikowska now confirmed, and Guy Pearce, Jason Clarke and Gary Oldman also signing up.
The film itself is based on the story of Wettest County author Matt Bondurant's grandfather and two great-uncles (LaBeouf and Hardy), 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.
Pearce will play an overly violent deputy who comes down hard on the Bondurants while Oldman will play a gangster who engages the boys to deliver alcohol. Wasikowska is LeBeouf's love interest, a local Mennonite girl, while Clarke is playing the third Bondurant brother.
The film starts shooting at the end of the month, and with a screenplay by Nick Cave, it should certainly be worth keeping an eye out for.