We’ve been hyping a number of big projects set to come out this year lately, but now one has been sadly lost. We posted last fall about Nick Cave and director John Hillcoat’s next project, a film adaptation of the novel The Wettest Country in the World, featuring a Cave-penned script, and what we later found out was set to star (TFB favorite) Ryan Gosling and Shia LaBeouf. Well, I’m not happy to report that the film, The Promised Land, has become the victim of the struggling non-franchise portion of the film industry.
“My own new project – with a much-loved script by Nick Cave and a dream all-star cast – has fallen apart,” wrote Hillcoat in a diary entry published in the Telegraph (via /Film). “The finance company that we began The Road with has also fallen apart, having to radically downsize to one remaining staff member. The great divide has begun, with only very low-budget films being made or huge 3-D franchise films.”
Hillcoat goes on to bemoan internet piracy and the current economic climate, adding, “I end the year appropriately – gazing into the apocalypse of my own industry.”
It’s likely to provide little consolation, but at least we have that Grizzly Bear-scored Ryan Gosling film to look forward to. Okay, that was a weak attempt to end this story on a happy note. R.I.P. The Promised Land and Nick Cave’s gold statue.