First announced way back in May last year, but seemingly stalled, Madeleine Stowe’s low-budget western dream project, “Unbound Captives,” is one we’ve sort of been rooting for. The script is apparently quite good, with Stowe turning down upwards of $5 million from Fox, who wanted it as a vehicle for Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe, in order to make sure her script made it to the screen the way she wanted it.
Since then the film seems to have stalled. It initially had Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz attached, with Jackman set to play a frontiersman who rescues a woman (Weisz) whose husband is killed and children kidnapped by a Comanche war party. Both actors seem to have moved on to other projects, and have very busy calendars coming up but it appears Robert Pattinson, attached to play Jackman’s son, is still circling the film. In a profile in the NY Times, it is revealed that for his role, he would be required to speak “almost entirely” in Comanche. We think it’s a safe bet to assume that he is either an orphan raised by Jackman or the offspring of a mixed marriage in the film. Either way, it’s an intriguing character detail.
It’s pretty easy to hate on Pattinson, particularly since he has milked his brooding look to a ridiculous degree, but the guy has taste and has made no secret of his eagerness to move onto bolder, riskier projects with more interesting directors. We’re pretty sure the actor had a hand in getting an offer out to Gus Van Sant (who he is a vocal fan of) for “Breaking Dawn” and in the profile he talks of wanting to work with Todd Solodnz and wanting to have the same kind of eclectic film roles as Joaquin Phoenix. Dude has ambition. Whether or not he will be a player outside the “Twilight” franchise remains to be seen, but if his presence can help get a ambitious western written and directed by a woman off the ground, we’re all for it.
There’s no word yet on the status of “Unbound Captives” but we hope that if he’s still talking about it, that it’s in some stage of active development. Our guess (and hope) is that the film has been put off until next year when the collective calendars of Jackman, Weisz and Pattinson open up a bit more. Fingers crossed.