Despite featuring a cast that includes Michael Fassbender, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Ben Mendelsohn, John Maclean’s Slow West has flown almost completely under the radar. It’s kicking off shooting right now in New Zealand{
Set at the end of the 19th century, the film follows the story of 17-year-old Jay Cavendish (Smit-McPhee) as he journeys across the American Frontier in search of the woman he loves, accompanied by a mysterious traveller named Silas (Fassbender). With settings including Colorado and the Scottish Highlands, it’ll mostly film in NZ with some additional shooting set for Scotland.
As well as starring, Fassbender is a producer on this one, which Maclean wrote and is using as his feature-length directorial debut. With Michael Whalley and Caren Pistorious also in the cast, it should finally let Fassbender indulge his Western cravings after he was denied the chance in Jane Got A Gun.
Fassbender will next be seen in The Counsellor (there are some new pictures from that one lurking here) and 12 Years A Slave. Smit-McPhee is in the latest R****omeo And Juliet and is part of** Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes**. Mendelsohn, last seen in The Place Beyond The Pines, is in Ryan Gosling’s How To Catch A Monster, set to arrive some time next year.