After nearly six years of development on the project, the Peter Dinklage-led The Thicket is finally getting on track as the cast has expanded with the additions of Jack Ryan‘s Noomi Rapace, Looking for Alaska‘s Charlie Plummer and It‘s Sophia Lillis, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
RELATED: Peter Dinklage to Headline Mystery Thriller The Thicket
Set in tough, turbulent and feral East Texas in the early 20th century, The Thicket follows the story of Jack, an innocent young man, who goes on an epic quest to rescue his sister after she has been kidnapped by a violent killer, Cut Throat Bill, and his gang. Jack enlists the help of a crafty bounty hunter named Shorty (Dinklage), a grave-digging alcoholic son of an ex-slave, and a street-smart prostitute. Together they track the girl into the deadly no-man’s land known as The Big Thicket – a place where blood and chaos reign.
The film will be written by Chris Kelley, based on the Joe Lansdale novel, directed by Elliott Lester and produced by Gianni Nunnari, along with Dinklage and his long time manager David Ginsberg, who will be producing through their newly formed production company. Shannon Gaulding, who works with Nunnari, will also serve as producer on the project.
“That Joe Lansdale’s dark vision will be brought to life by the brilliantly talented Peter Dinklage starring as Shorty – it is a dream of mine,” Nunnari said in a previous statement. “This is the kind of original movie with edge and style that Hollywood Gang is hungry for; luckily we found all these things in ‘The Thicket’. We cannot wait to share this movie with audiences around the world.”
RELATED: Peter Dinklage Joins Rosamund Pike for I Care A Lot
“Completely original,” Dinklage said in a previous statement. “The characters and the world they inhabit jumped from the pages for me in such a cinematic way.”
Lansdale, winner of nine Bram Stoker Awards and two NY Times Notable Book Awards, is a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame and is Writer-in-Residence at Stephen F. Austin University.
(Photo Credit: Backgrid Images)
