Deadline reports that Christoph Waltz (Spectre) and Willem Dafoe (The Lighthouse) will star together in the Western drama Dead For a Dollar from The Warriors director Walter Hill. The film will see Waltz as a bounty hunter and Dafoe as an outlaw who Waltz previously sent to prison.
Dead For a Dollar will be written by Hill and Matt Harris. The fill will take place in New Mexico Territory, Chihuahua, in 1897. The synopsis reads:
Max Borlund (Waltz), a famed bounty hunter, is 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.
Myriad Pictures is producing and will begin international sales for the project during this week’s Cannes virtual market. Producing the film is Myriad president and CEO Kirk D’Amico (The Last Word), Jeremy Wall (Gun-Shy) and Caroyn Mc Masters.
“We are extremely pleased to be working with the legendary Walter Hill who has created a Western with contemporary themes and modern feeling characters,” said D’Amico. “Award-winning actors Christoph Waltz and Willem Dafoe will embody the extraordinary leading roles which are destined for cinematic history.”
This will mark Waltz’s second Western after starring in Quentin Tarintino’s Django Unchained, in which he also played a bounty hunter and won his Academy Award for his role as Dr. King Shultz.
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
