After writing the likes of Rust And Bone and A Prophet, script man Thomas Bidegain is taking the chance to make his film-directing debut with a drama called Les Cowboys. He’s just landed John C. Reilly to join the cast.
Les Cowboys, which Bidegain wrote with regular collaborator Noé Debré, follows a father (François Damiens) who discovers that his daughter has disappeared after she started dating a young Muslim fundamentalist. He teams up with his son (Finnegan Oldfield) to find her, travelling around the globe from Lyon to Pakistan and ends up having to recruit help from an American headhunter (Reilly). As you might have guessed from his previous credits, this is not Bidegain turning to knockabout farce for his first turn in the director's chair.
“Les Cowboys touches on serious issues which have social, political and religious implications but our primary endeavour with this film is to depict how the disappearance of this daughter breaks apart the family and the tragedy that stems from it,” producer Alain Attal told Variety.
Reilly was most recent seen in **Guardians Of The Galaxy **and has several films on the way including Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster, indie comedy drama Entertainment and historical fantasy The Tale Of Tales.