The stars are lining up for a new film titled, National Anthem. Today, Deadline revealed that a slew of names have joined the gritty thriller, including Sydney Sweeney, Paul Walter Hauser, Simon Rex, Toby Huss, Gavin Maddox Bergman, Harriet Sansom Harris, Derek Hinkey, and Halsey, for whom the film will be an acting debut. Screenwriter and poet Tony Tost will make his directorial debut helming the film.
National Anthem will center around the search for a hard-to-find, treasured Lakota Native American Ghost Shirt. Made famous for its role in the Battle of Wounded Knee, the Lakota people thought that by wearing the Ghost shirts, they would be impervious to bullets shot by the opposing white settlers. Unfortunately, the garments didn’t work as thought and a hundred Lakota warriors were slaughtered during the brutal and bloody battle. The film will focus on several seekers of the notorious piece of clothing. Whether their reasons be for wealth, personal gain, or the desire to bring it back to where it belongs, the group will fight tooth and nail to obtain the shirt for their own purposes.
Alex Saks will be producing for Page Fifty-Four Pictures alongside Aaron L. Gilbert for Bron Studios. Creative Wealth Media will also produce with their own Jason Cloth as executive producer. Marcus RedThunder, a Native American activist, will join the film as a consultant.
Of the stacked list of actors joining the new picture, producer Gilbert commented that he was “thrilled” to be teaming up with them as well as Tost to bring the “inspirational and personal story of self-redemption and survival” to film form. Gilbert added that he couldn’t think of “a more talented group of actors to personify the grit and vulnerability of these characters.”
Tost said that he was equally happy “to bring National Anthem to life” and “especially thrilled to be bringing to the screen a vision of modern rural America that pays tribute to the myths of the West while also radically reinventing them.”
All in all, National Anthem sounds like it will take viewers on a rollercoaster ride of emotion, keeping them guessing whether or not the characters will make morally correct choices in their quest to claim the Ghost shirt. As always, stay tuned to Collider for more information surrounding the new film.