While Super Furry Animals' Gruff Rhys has diverted into idiosyncratic documentaries for his film career, The Beta Band's John Maclean has opted for a full-blown Western for his feature debut. Following a couple of shorts, Slow West is actually his third collaboration with Michael Fassbender. Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ben Mendelsohn, Rory McCann and Caren Pistorius also star. And here's the new trailer.
Playing to an enthusiastic reception at Sundance, Slow West is an off-kilter take on the genre that still manages to keep the bullets flying while Fassbender chomps an Eastwood-type cigarillo. Some early viewers have compared it to Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, while others have said it's more Wes Anderson.
Whatever, the story involves Smit-McPhee journeying across the new American frontier in the late 19th century to find the girl he loves, picking up mysterious "chaperone" Fassbender along the way. Life, it's fair to say, is not peaceful there, in the open air. Whether our hero finds a place where there's so much space remains to be seen.
Slow West next plays the Tribeca Film Festival on April 18, and gets a release in the UK on June 26.