After directing his 2008 crime thriller The Merry Gentlemen and 2023’s Knox Goes Away, Michael Keaton is getting back behind the camera for Rode to Ruin, an original Western thriller written by R. Dean McCreary.
Keaton and Freeman Mount Up for a New Western Thriller
According to Deadline, “Keaton will portray retired Marshal Henry Tillman, and Freeman is a wanted outlaw named Joseph Mulberry. The U.S. Marshal searched for forty years for his wife’s killer, and the cold trail finally heats up and leads him to an aging outlaw losing his memory – and to a buried truth neither man may survive.”
A Long-Awaited Reunion Nearly Four Decades in the Making
Looking back, Keaton and Freeman worked together almost 40 years ago on the 1988 psychological drama Clean and Sober. In the film directed by Glenn Gordon Caron, a hustling drug addict checks himself into rehabilitation to escape trouble with the law and realizes that it’s exactly what he needs.
Rode to Ruin also marks a return to the Western genre for Freeman, who previously starred in Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning epic Unforgiven, and currently co-stars in Taylor Sheridan’s hit series Lioness alongside Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman.
More Than Just a Classic Gunfighter Tale
“When I first read it, I thought, this is really good – and there’s more here for Morgan and me to mine together,” said Keaton. “Once we talked, it became clear we were on the same page. Just as The Shawshank Redemption isn’t simply a prison movie, Rode to Ruin isn’t simply a Western. It’s a story with a lot of layers that happens to unfold in the West.”
“Rode to Ruin is a deeply human story about forgiveness, revenge, redemption and the choices people make when time is running out,” said producer Lori McCreary. “The prospect of Michael directing and sharing the screen with Morgan is everything we hoped this film could become.”
Are you excited to learn more about Michael Keaton’s Rode to Ruin? Do you have a favorite film in the Western genre? Admittedly, I’ve not watched too many Westerns in my spare time. Does Back to the Future Part III count? I like that one! Oh, and the Coen Brothers’ remake of True Grit is pretty awesome, too. Let us know in the comments section below!
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