After dropping out of Michael Mann’s biopic Ferrari, it appears that Christian Bale has found his next project, and it’s one that will see him reuniting with a director of a different sort. Per Variety, Bale will star in the 1892-set Hostiles, which Out of the Furnace filmmaker Scott Cooper will write and direct, and which boasts a premise that may sound somewhat familiar to those who’ve seen The Revenant. The logline is as follows:

Set in 1892, “Hostiles” tells the story of a legendary Army captain, who after stern resistance, begrudgingly agrees to escort a dying Cheyenne war chief and his family back to tribal lands. Making the harrowing and perilous journey from an isolated Army outpost in New Mexico to the grasslands of Montana, the former rivals encounter a young widow whose family was murdered on the plains. Together, they must join forces to overcome the punishing landscape and hostile Comanche tribes that they encounter along the way.


Apparently Cooper has been weighing several options after directing Johnny Depp in the Whitey Bulger drama Black Mass, but when Bale was suddenly available, the two became excited about the prospect of teaming up again. Between Crazy Heart, Out of the Furnace, and Black Mass, I’ve admired all of Cooper’s films thus far, and I’m intrigued by the prospect of the filmmaker tackling a plains-set Western of sorts—especially with an actor of Bale's caliber in the lead role.

Cooper will also produce the pic alongside John Lesher and Ken Kao, although it is not yet set up at a studio. No word on how quickly this will come together, but given that Bale now has a hole in his schedule, I imagine it’ll be sooner rather than later. The actor is coming off The Big Short and has his long-in-the-can Terrence Malick drama Knight of Cups releasing this spring.

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Image via Relativity Media