He was Roy Batty in Blade Runner and John Ryder in The Hitcher. But screw all that. Rutger Hauer's most iconic role for posterity is clearly going to be Hobo With a Shotgun.
Ahem, well, perhaps not, but it does look like great fun, and Twitch have scored the first official on-set image of Hauer, in full filthy regalia, toting the titular 20-gauge and pulling a shopping trolly with a girl in it. Dead? Unconscious? All is yet to be revealed.
Not unlike Robert Rodriguez's Machete, Hobo With a Shotgun stems from a fake trailer; in this case one that won a prize (sponsored by Rod and Quentin Tarantino) at the 2007 South By Southwest festival in Texas. Three years later, the full-blown "gore-action-comedy" is underway, telling the story of a vigilante tramp trying to clean up the streets for future generations.
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Director Jason Eisener has had to get over some initial nerves. "Working with Rutger Hauer is amazing," he gushes, "but I have to say, I was really intimidated at first because I've only ever worked with local actors."
"We're being naughty and very dirty and very ugly", says Hauer.
Sounds like everyone's having a laugh. Shooting started a few weeks ago in Halifax and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. No international release dates (or distribution deals) yet, but there are regular production updates at the project's official website.