Wait, Walter Hill’s making a western with Christoph Waltz and Willem Dafoe
Please, Mr. Hill, bring some of that Deadwood pilot energy to Dead For A Dollar
Film News Willem Dafoe
It’s been a good long while since the name Walter Hill got people excited. Sure, you’ll see his name under the word “producer” on Alien movies, but as a director? Well, it’s been a minute. Long gone are the days of The Warriors, The Driver, and 48 Hours. Looking through his filmography from the last two decades, one bright spot stands out amid the little-seen action movies The Assignment and Bullet To The Head: the Deadwood pilot. Hill knows westerns and has made quite a few of them, which is what makes his next project so exciting.
Per Deadline, Hill is assembling a posse consisting of Willem Dafoe and Christoph Waltz for Dead For A Dollar, a new western written and directed by Hill. It would be his third movie in the last 20 years, following the aforementioned pulpy fare from 2012 and 2016. And given the talent on board, we’re raising the “Walter Hill interest watch” to a respectable seven out of 10.
Deadline also dishes on the plot:
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 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 longtime criminal rival.
Waltz is a bounty hunter? Dafoe a professional gambler and “sometime outlaw”? Yes. Yes, we would like some of that, thank you—definitely a seven on the Hill watch. Of course, there’s still plenty of time for this Assignment to get a Bullet In The Head, but had Hill made a movie called “Cautiously Optimistic,” we’d squeeze that title into this sentence right about here.
24 Comments
The plot sounds very similar to The Professionals (1966). That said, I’m all in for this one.
That was my first thought, too.
Exactly what I was going to write.
This sounds like it could be almost Western Noir.
I just rewatched ‘Streets of Fire’ a couple of weeks ago. I originally saw it when I was about 6 or so. It was the first time I’d ever seen Dafoe in a film. To this day the first image that pops into my head when I hear his name is him with that pompadour and chest high leather waders. It’s also the movie that made me fall in love with Diane Lane.
Same. To all of that.Surprisingly good cast, Michael Pere aside.
Rick Moranis cast against type and a young Robert Townsend.
Diane Lane. I fell in love with Diane Lane in Six Pack. Lol. I was 9.
I actually saw that for the first time a couple weeks ago. It would have been a really fun movie if the lead had any charisma.Rockabilly Vampire Willem Dafoe in pleather waders was…something.
Film that made me fall in love with Diane Lane:
Uh…yes? Yes, please? All of it?
Willer DaFoe? Hell yes. Christopher Waltz? I’m sold. Waltz is on fire
Like moths to the lamp, I am just drawn inexplicably but indubitably to that face.
It’s been a good long while since the name Walter Hill got people excited
Brother made Streets Of Fire, dude can do no wrong.
Meh. Give me The Warriors or The Driver over Streets any day. The terrible lead actor ruins that film for me. There’s other things wrong with it, but his acting style…just fucking terrible
I am going to watch the hell out of this movie.This also reminds me that it is time for my fourth or fifth rewatch of Deadwood.
I’d say you should have slapped a spoiler warning on this, but that does seem like the sort of plot twist anyone who has ever seen a movie ought to see coming the second the business dude is all “My wife was kidnapped.”
They should just have him made a movie of Red Dead Redemption 2, considering this is a sidequest in it
Well, Red Dead Redemption 2 was already a movie.
My absolute favorite Walter Hill movie is Extreme Prejudice. It’s got enough plot for at least two movies, and it’s, yeah, cheesy and silly. But jeez I love it. Rip Torn is in it for about 5 minutes and almost steals the movie from everyone. But.. Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, Clancy Brown, Maria Conchita Alonso, Michael Ironside… Hell, it’s a Texas Ranger (Nolte) vs. the drug kingpin (Boothe) he grew up with, with Alonso in the middle. Plus a black ops team who are all reportedly dead who, you know, rob banks and stuff. I mean. It’s wonderful.
I might give the edge to Southern Comfort, but Extreme Prejudice is a total blast. Peak Powers Boothe.
Seconded. Nick Nolte rocking a lever-action rifle? Hell yes. And don’t forget some great testosterone-soaked dialog courtesy of John Milius. Going from memory:“It’s like nature seeks the path of least resistance. So you get crooked rivers and crooked men.”-
“Hell, you could always buy me Cash, but you can’t buy the badge, and one without the other ain’t no goddamn good.”-
Nolte: “You know, Hank, the next thing, you’re gonna be complaining about the state legislature making women a Ranger. You know that.”Torn: “Hell, I don’t care, as long as she’s six foot six and mean as a snake. Legislature, shit Jack, the only thing worse than a politician is a child molester.”-And this gem of an exchange copied from iMdb:Sgt. Charles Biddle: Jack Benteen. Texas Ranger.Sgt. Larry McRose: Yeah, big son of a bitch, ain’t he?Maj. Paul Hackett: You thinking about taking him on?Sgt. Larry McRose: Might be fun. Always did hate cops.Maj. Paul Hackett: What do you have against cops?Sgt. Larry McRose: Once one hit me.Maj. Paul Hackett: And?Sgt. Larry McRose: He died.Sgt. Charles Biddle: You snuffed a cop?Sgt. Larry McRose: No, his mother-in-law backed over him by mistake in her LTD, which is why I like Fords.
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 longtime criminal rival.Something of a shame we already know the choice he’ll ultimately make.