The Last Rites of Ransom Pride

I’m really pleased with the recent crop of westerns that have hot the big screens as of late – 3:10 To Yuma, Appaloosa, No Country for Old Men – but there’s one in particular I’m looking forward to.

The Last Rites of Ransom Pride, co-written by Texas music legend Ray Wylie Hubbard, is a violent Western (the studio says it’s going to be “Sam Peckinpah meets Quentin Tarantino” ) set in the early 1900s about a woman trying to bring her lover, a murdered outlaw, home to Glory, Texas for burial.

Scott Speedman (Underworld) plays the title character in flashbacks, country music legends Dwight Yoakam and Kris Kristofferson portray villain, W. Earl Brown (Al Swearengen’s right-hand man Dan Dority from HBO’s too-soonly defunct Deadwood), Lizzy Caplan (from HBO’S vampire series True Blood)  and Beverley Hills 90210’s Jason Priestley are all on the roster. The film is in post production and is slated to be out in early 2009.

I’ll be paying $10. for this one.

Appaloosa

I went to see Ed Harris’ big screen adaptation of Robert B. Parker’s Western Appaloosa, about two friends (Harris and Viggo Mortensen) hired to police a small town that is suffering under the rule of a bloodthirsty rancher (Jeremy Irons).  The movie pretty much runs directly from the book so if you read and liked that I think you’ll be pleased. I highly recommend this lean and tense movie to anyone who loves the oater genre.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw1XFu-mFVk[/youtube]