Pedro Almodóvar to direct western starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal
- The filmmaker's new project, the medium-length film Strange Way of Life, which will be shot on location in Almería, will also feature other Iberian actors
Yesterday, 28 June, LGBTQI+ Pride Day, Pedro Almodóvar (Parallel Mothers) issued a note in which, he unexpectedly announced the title, the protagonists and a brief synopsis of his new work: the medium-length film - like The Human Voice (read more)– Strange Way of Life. In The Human Voice, just over half an hour long, it was the British star Tilda Swinton who played the lead role, now it will be the Texan Ethan Hawke (who already worked with another Spanish director, Alejandro Amenábar, in Regression [+see also:
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making of
interview: Alejandro Amenábar
film profile]).
The cast is completed by Chilean actor Pedro Pascal (recently seen in the Disney+ series The Mandalorian and in the European-set film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, alongside Nicolas Cage), Jason Fernández (seen in Bandoleros [+see also:
trailer
film profile], film and series by Enrique Urbizu), Portuguese actor José Condessa (Gabriel [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), the model George Steane (who appeared in the short film Cruising by Valentino R. Sandoli), Manu Ríos (a breakout actor thanks to the series Elite), Pedro Casablanc (recently in El universo de Óliver [+see also:
trailer
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film profile], recently in The Year of Fury [+see also:
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interview: Rafa Russo
film profile]).
The synopsis provided by El Deseo, the production company of the Almodóvar brothers, reads: "A man rides a horse across the desert that separates them from Bitter Creek. He has come to visit Sheriff Jake. Twenty-five years earlier, the sheriff and Silva, the rancher who rides out to meet him, worked together as hired guns. Silva comes on the pretext of meeting his friend from his youth. And indeed they celebrate their meeting. But the next morning, Sheriff Jake tells him that the reason for their trip is not the memory of their old friendship....".
"I shouldn't say any more so as not to give away all the surprises in the script," says the two-time Oscar winner, who years ago became interested in adapting Tom Spanbauer's novel, The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon - full of queer characters, like those who fill the filmography of the auteur of All About My Mother.
"Strange Way of Life alludes to the famous Portuguese fado by Amalia Rodrigues, whose lyrics suggest that there is no stranger existence than one spent with your back to your own desires," Almodóvar continues. "We will film part of it in the Tabernas desert, in Almería, and in the village that Sergio Leone built fifty years ago to film his dollars trilogy with Clint Eastwood," he concludes. This very place has subsequently appeared in numerous feature films, such as Álex de la Iglesia's 800 Bullets whose debut film, Acción Mutante, was produced by the Almodóvar family.
Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello will oversee the costume design for this medium-length film, as well as being associate producers, according to this press release, which has slightly altered the film calendar announced months ago by El Deseo, which included the imminent shooting of the adaptation of Lucia Berlin's A Manual for Cleaning Women, with Cate Blanchett as lead actress and co-producer (read more).
(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)
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