Key Insights
- New Project: Gus Van Sant returns with Dead Man’s Wire, a crime drama.
- Star Cast: Bill Skarsgård leads alongside Darce Montgomery and Al Pacino.
- Thematic Focus: The film explores the true story of a kidnapping in 1977.
- Theatrical Release: Dead Man’s Wire premieres on January 9 and expands on January 16.
It’s been seven years since the last movie from Gus Van Sant (Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot), but at long last, the director is back with a new project. Row K Entertainment has released the first trailer for Dead Man’s Wire, a crime drama based on the true story of Tony Kiritsis, a man who kidnapped his mortgage broker and wired a shotgun to the back of his neck. I mean… that’s wrong, but… I get it.
Bill Skarsgård (It: Welcome to Derry) stars as Tony alongside Darce Montgomery (Stranger Things), Colman Domingo (The Running Man), Cary Elwes (Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning), Myha’la (Dumb Money), and Al Pacino (The Irishman). The official synopsis reads: “Based on a true story, the 1977 kidnapping of a prominent banker grips the nation and turns the abductor into an outlaw folk hero. As the media frenzy peaks, the standoff becomes a spectacle of desperation, defiance and blurred justice, which resonates even today.” Dead Man’s Wire will hit select theaters on January 9, before expanding wide on January 16.
Although Van Sant has been absent from the big screen for too long, he has been active on television. He directed six episodes of Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, the second season of the anthology series co-created by Ryan Murphy. The season follows acclaimed writer Truman Capote as he ruins his friendships with the Swans, a socialite group of New York City high society, by writing a thinly veiled fictionalized account of their scandalous and hedonistic lives in his (ultimately unfinished) novel, Answered Prayers.
Van Sant was also developing a Hulk Hogan movie, which would have focused on the wrestler’s legal battle against Gawker. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were being eyed to star, but the project was ultimately scrapped earlier this year.
As for Skarsgård, he has been stepping back into the shoes of Pennywise for HBO’s It: Welcome to Derry. The series finds the shapeshifting creature terrorizing the town of Derry in the ’60s. The show has been receiving largely positive reviews, including one from our own Alex Maidy. “The scares are plentiful, and the expansion of the title town makes Welcome to Derry another stellar HBO original series,” he wrote. “This is the best of the short list of projects inspired by Stephen King. I am looking forward to the planned additional seasons that will delve even deeper into the origin of Pennywise.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.
What do you think of the Dead Man’s Wire trailer?
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