If Dexter Fletcher's debut Wild Bill had elements of the Western in it, his second feature **Provenance **is going full-gun with the genre. It's an actual golly-gee-willickering horse opera set in Arizona. To drive home the point, he's bushwhacked Mark Strong for the project.
"I've always loved Westerns but have never been able to be in one," Dexter told The Guardian. "I tried to work a lot Western ideas into Wild Bill and I feel really lucky to be able to actually get to make one of my own, in real Western country."
Plot details are yet to emerge but Strong is joined in the cast by Sammy Williams, Bill's young son in Wild Bill, while BBC Film has thrown its financial backing behind the production.
Strong has been bringing solid villainy to our cinemas for several movies now. Would we be out of place picturing him as the Van Cleef-like figure holding smoking six-shooters over the bodies of the unwary in Provenance? Then again, could he be the Alan Ladd-like hero emerging from the sun to save the day? One thing we can say for sure is that he not playing the Marlene Dietrich role.
Fletcher's **Wild Bill **has been one of the unalloyed joys of 2012 so far - a genuinely classy piece of work from the long-time actor and first-time director. We can't to see what he does next.