If you thought Australia would be the last you’d ever see of Hugh Jackman wearing a cowboy hat while riding a horse toward danger, think again. Variety tells us that Jackman, Rachel Weisz and Robert Pattinson have all signed on to star in actress Madeline Stowe’s directorial debut, Unbound Captives, based on her own original script.
This film carries an interesting backstory, too: It seems 20th Century Fox offered Stowe upwards of $5 million for her script – making it one of the highest amounts ever offered to a first-time screenwriter – but she turned it down because there was no promise she’d be able to either direct or star. At the time, Ridley Scott was interested in directing Russell Crowe in the movie, but Stowe – who originally wrote the script under a pseudonym with her husband – wanted to be more than just the writer.
She’ll get her chance now directing some of today’s hottest talent in a story that follows a woman (Weisz) whose children are kidnapped by a Comanche war party in 1859 following the murder of her husband. Pattinson will play the son, while Jackman will take on the role of the frontiersman who rescues our damsel in distress.
Though this is Stowe’s first time behind the camera, cinematographer John Toll (Braveheart, The Last Samurai) will be there to help frame the beautiful, yet rough-and-tough landscapes of 1859. Sounds like a pretty exciting film, right?
Do you think Robert Pattinson will play a better cowboy than he does a vampire? Sound off below…
