Viggo Mortensen is set to write and direct the period western “The Dead Don’t Hurt,” which will star Vicky Krieps (“Bergman Island,” “Phantom Thread”).
The movie will begin shooting on Oct. 12 in Canada. Billed as a “Western love story” set in the 1860s, the film is a Talipot Studio, Recorded Picture and Perceval Pictures production, produced by Regina Solórzano, HanWay founder and Oscar-winning producer Jeremy Thomas and Mortensen.
“The Dead Don’t Hurt” stars Krieps and Mortensen in the lead roles.
Krieps stars as fiercely independent French Canadian Vivienne Le Coudy who embarks on a relationship with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen (Mortensen). After meeting Olsen in San Francisco, Vivienne agrees to travel with him to his home near the quiet town of Elk Flats, where they start a life together. The Civil War separates them, leaving Vivienne to fend for herself in a place controlled by powerful rancher Alfred Jeffries (Garret Dillahunt) and his violent, wayward son Weston Jeffries (Solly McLeod), aided and abetted by corrupt Mayor Rudolph Schiller (Danny Huston). Olsen’s eventual return challenges their relationship as they have to confront and make peace with the person each has become.
The cast also includes Tom Bateman (“Death on the Nile”), Lance Henriksen (“Falling”), and W. Earl Brown (“The Unforgivable”).
The film will reunite Mortensen with cinematographer Marcel Zyskind (“As in Heaven”), award-winning production designer Carol Spier (“Eastern Promises”), art director Jason Clarke (“Black Mirror”), and costume designer Anne Dixon (“The Song of Names”) who worked together on “Falling.”
Mortensen previously worked with Jeremy Thomas on David Cronenberg’s award-winning drama A Dangerous Method.
Talipot Studio is fully funding the film, which will shoot predominantly in Durango, Mexico, where Talipot will manage the production. It is also shooting in Ontario and British Columbia, Canada. HanWay Films will handle worldwide sales and distribution.
More to come.
