After many years of failed attempts to get it beyond the development stage, New Regency has now hired Aussie filmmaker John Hillcoat to direct a film adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winner Cormac McCarthy’s darkest and most violent western novel “Blood Meridian”.
Widely considered one of the greatest works of American literature, the 1985 book follows a 14-year-old Tennesseean’s experience with a group of scalp hunters who massacred Native Americans and others in the United States-Mexico borderlands for bounty, pleasure, and eventually out of compulsion.
Various directors have expressed interest in doing an adaptation over the years including Ridley Scott, Michael Haneke, Todd Field and James Franco.
Hillcoat has familiarity with the subject matter – making his name on the violent Aussie western “The Proposition” and having already adapted a McCarthy work with “The Road” film starring Viggo Mortensen.
Back in 2016, Hillcoat revealed “Blood Meridian” was the film he always wanted to do, but at the time, infamous producer Scott Rudin was reportedly “blocking it”. That’s not an issue anymore, it seems.
Hillcoat and Keith Redmon will produce, whilst McCarthy and his son, John Francis McCarthy, will serve as executive producers. Hillcoat most recently directed episodes of the Showtime limited series “George & Tammy”.
Source: Deadline
