Hollywood has been trying to adapt the 1974 Richard Brautigan-written gothic western novel The Hawkline Monster for years. Over that time directors Tim Burton and Hal Ashby both took runs at trying to get the film made. Well, the movie is finally moving forward at new Regency with Yorgos Lanthimos, the filmmaker behind The Favourite and The Lobster, to direct.
The book tells the story of two “unlikely hero gunslingers hired by a 15-year-old girl named Magic Child to kill the monster that lives in ice caves under the basement of a house inhabited by a young woman named Miss Hawkline. What follows is a unique adventure where there is more to Magic Child, Miss Hawkline and the house than meets the eye.”
This has the potential to be an incredible film, and I hope Lanthimos can pull it off. The films he’s made, which also include Dogtooth and The Killing of a Sacred Dear, are all pretty weird ,so he might be the perfect fit for this project.
Ashby was trying to make the film during the 1970s and 80s with stars like Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Jeff Bridges, and Beau Bridges attached to it at various points. When Ashby died in 1988, Tim Burton jumped on board to try and develop it with Clint Eastwood and Jack Nicholson, but it never happened. Eastwood, Nicolson, and Burton!? That would have been a hell of an interesting movie!
It’ll be interesting to see who Lanthimos ends up casting in the film. At this point, he could probably get whoever he wants, so who will it be?
Are you familiar with this book and are you happy to hear that the movie is finally going to get made?
Source: THR