It’s not a proper awards season without Martin McDonagh in the mix. The Oscar-winning “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” and “The Banshees of Inisherin” writer/director is back with his first feature film in four years, “Wild Horse Nine.” He reteams with his Oscar-winning “Three Billboards” star Sam Rockwell for another dark comedy, this time set in 1970s Chile and aided by John Malkovich in the cast. They play wisecracking, louche CIA agents, with Rockwell in a so-on-period mustache. Watch the trailer from Searchlight Pictures below.
More on the film from Searchlight, which released McDonagh’s last two films, both hits at the Oscars: “Shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup, CIA agents Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell) are dispatched from Santiago to Easter island by their bureau chief, MJ (Steve Buscemi). Amongst the Island’s iconic statues, and as the longtime partners wrestle with their dark pasts and present conspiracies, Chris’s newfound bond with a pair of rebellious students (Mariana di Girolamo and Ailín Salas) threatens to send everyone’s trip to this remote paradise sideways.”
The cast overall includes Malkovich, Rockwell, Buscemi, di Girolamo, Salas, Tom Waits (!), and Parker Posey (!!!), and with a November 6 release date, it’s safe to say that like McDonagh’s recent output, “Wild Horse Nine” will skip Cannes in favor of Venice and the rest of the fall festivals.
McDonagh’s previous film, “The Banshees of Inisherin,” was nominated for nine Oscars, sadly losing all of them. But “Three Billboards” won for Supporting Actor Rockwell and Best Actress Frances McDormand. McDonagh’s own Oscar for writing and directing the 2004 live action short “Six Shooter” (he was robbed for “In Bruges” four years later).
The film is produced by Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh, and Anita Overland. Carter Burwell is back to write the original score, with Ben Davis heading up photography.
“Wild Horse Nine” opens in theaters from Searchlight Pictures on Friday, November 6.
