Jeff Nichols is a director that canny folk keep a close eye on in years to come. He's won admirers with Shootgun Stories, Take Shelter and Mud, and he's now got a new, so-far untitled movie in the prep stage. With an eye to casting, he's been talking to Joel Edgerton to co-star alongside Nichols muse Michael Shannon.
Edgerton brought the beef to The Great Gatsby, got his night vision on in Zero Dark Thirty, stood out in the outstanding Animal Kingdom, and brought more beef to Warrior. He's not just about the beef, though. He's been terrific in everything he's been in since his days on Aussie TV. He can even moisture farm, for pete's sake.
If he signs on - and there are a fair few actors who would kill to work with Nichols at the moment - he'll be joining a film that its creator is billing as a "contemporary-set, sci-fi chase movie".
"I really want to make a certain kind of movie... it's like a sub-genre movie, a chase film," Nichols told **Empire **in May. "I like working in genre and subverting it - I think each of my films has been a genre film that you dismantle - and I'm trying to do the same thing here. I'm putting the focus on the characters, rather than the genre elements."
Edgerton, meanwhile, is currently working on troubled Western** Jane Got A Gun** and has Boston gangster Whitey Bulger biopic Black Mass lined up, too.
Head to the 24-minute mark below for that full Nichols interview on the podcast.