Director James Mangold will return to the Western with the revenge thriller The Gunslinger

While KNIGHT AND DAY turned out to be a bust here in North America (though I found it fun thanks to a very charismatic Tom Cruise performance), director James Mangold’s previous film, the Western remake 3:10 TO YUMA, fared much better. Now, according to THR’s Heat Vision, Mangold will return to the genre – albeit in a modern setting – with THE GUNSLINGER.

The film’s script, originally bought on spec by Warner Bros. from writer John Hlavin (UNDERWORLD 4: NEW DAWN) is described as a contemporary Western that “centers on an ex-Texas Ranger who sets out to punish the men who killed his brother.” Not much to go on but sounds decent enough. I love the tropes of the Western genre but even more so when recontextualized in a modern setting, like that of the criminally under-appreciated THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA. Could this film hope to be as good as something like that?

THE GUNSLINGER is looking to get underway soon, possibly in the spring.