Oscar-nominee Ethan Hawke (Training Day, Moon Knight) is set to star opposite Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) in the western short film Strange Way of Life from director Pedro Almodóvar (Talk to Her, The Skin I Live In). The half-hour long pic is also known as Extraña forma de vida. The Spanish director will shoot the short before making his English-language feature debut, A Manual for Cleaning Women, with Cate Blanchett.
Strange Way of Life will be “another exercise of freedom in the line of The Human Voice,” said producer Agustín Almodóvar. The short will be shot in English. Set up at El Deseo, the Almodóvar brothers’ Madrid-based production company, the story begins with “a man, Silva, riding on a horse across a desert to Bitter Creek. He has come to visit Sheriff Jake. 25 years earlier, the two men worked together as hired gunmen.”
“Silva comes with the pretext of re-encountering his friend from youth. They celebrate their re-encounter. But the following morning Sheriff Jake tells him that the real reason for his visit isn’t memories of their old friendship….”
Pedro Almodóvar said of the project, “I won’t say any more because I don’t want to reveal all the script’s surprises.” The film’s title, he explained, echoes the title of a famous fado written and sung by Amalia Rodrigues. Its lyrics claim that there’s no stranger existence than one that ignores one’s own desires – which raises the question as to how much the film could turn on desire, rather than the normal motifs of a Western.
The short also stars Jason Fernández, José Condessa, George Steane and Manu Ríos, as well as Pedro Casablanc, and Sara Salámo.
It will shoot in the desert of Tabernas in Almería, southern Spain, and also in the settlement which Sergio Leone built 50 years ago to shoot his spaghetti Western “Dollars” trilogy with Clint Eastwood. El Deseo is also building a ranch near Madrid to film further scenes in the film.
via: Variety