Ridley Scott sets Western with Drew Goddard and Bone Tomahawk’s S. Craig Zahler

By Sam Barsanti  |  May 10, 2016 | 10:27pm
Aux Features Film

Fresh off of his lookalike finally going for an old Westeros swing on the most recent Game Of Thrones, Ridley Scott has announced that he’ll be directing an adaptation of Wraiths Of The Broken Land, a Western novel written by Bone Tomahawk writer/director S. Craig Zahler. The Martian screenwriter Drew Goddard will be handling the script, with a bunch of Martian producers reuniting with Scott as well. Presumably, that means Scott and 20th Century Fox are hoping Wraiths will manage to pick up some of that same prestige (and box-office revenue) that The Martian managed to collect from Matt Damon farming for poop potatoes.

This comes from Deadline, which notes that Wraiths won’t be a weirdly joke-filled drama like The Martian, though. Set near the U.S./Mexico border in the early 1900s, Zahler’s original book is about a pair of sisters who are captured and forced into prostitution. To rescue them, their brothers and father put together a gang of outlaws that includes a former slave, a Native American, and an expert gunman (who is called a “wraith” for some reason). Deadline says that “lives, ethics, and sanity are imperiled during the wild, brutal struggle that ensues,” so sounds like it should be a pretty fun time for everyone involved.

There’s no word on when Scott will manage to fit Wraiths Of The Broken Land into his busy schedule, but he’ll have to make room for it among Alien: Covenant, The Cartel, Blade Runner 2, and the TV medical drama he’s producing.

 
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