Peter Dinklage And Juliet Lewis To Star In Dark Western Film The Thicket

Movies

Peter Dinklage, best known for his role as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones, is to star alongside Juliette Lewis as outlaw gang leader Cutthroat Bill in the upcoming dark Western thriller The Thicket, adapted from the novel of the same name by Joe R. Lansdale.

Set in early twentieth-century Texas, Jack Parker (Levon Hawke) has seen his fair share of tragedy in his young life. After he and his younger sister, Lula (Esmé Creed-Miles), are orphaned, they travel to their uncle’s farm when more catastrophe strikes; a band of bank-robbing bandits murder Jack’s grandfather and kidnap his sister. With no other soul left for miles, Jack must grow up quickly and enlist the help of “heroes” the likes of which none would expect: a charismatic, bounty-hunting dwarf named Reginald Jones (Dinklage), the son of a former slave named Eustace (Gbenga Akinnagbe), and Jimmie Sue (Leslie Grace), a “street-smart woman-for-hire” who knows something about the bandits and possibly Jack’s extended family. 

This film has been in the works for a while, with word of the adaptation dating back to 2014. It has been a longtime passion project of Dinklage’s, and it finally began pre-production in 2020 with Naomi Rapace and Charlie Plummer originally cast alongside Dinklage. That version fell about due to COVID; three years later, The Thicket came together again with Macon Blair, Andrew Schulz, James Hetfield, David Midthunder, and Arliss Howard also starring. 

The novel itself is a bildungsroman focusing on Jack, yet the film appears to place heavy emphasis on Reginald Jones. Despite this change, the story still looks rather engaging, dark and gritty, which perks up my attention. Westerns have also been few and far between in the past few decades, so it is quite a treat to see a revival of this genre on the big screens, albeit not in the same vein as the Westerns of old featuring John Wayne, for example. This looks more equal parts True Grit (the Coen Brothers version) and Stand by Me. 

That’s not to say those films weren’t excellent and told fantastic stories with great and memorable characters; however, I suppose with my love of history, it’s fascinating to learn of the nitty-gritty details of the hardships of the time and how people dealt with them. This particular film was shot in Calgary, Alberta, which is not the setting of the novel, which was set in America. This one small detail is rather a shame (though we can guess why they chose to film elsewhere), because it only adds to the scenery and ambiance when in the novel’s setting, but alas. The history of America is also a plethora of untold stories that are, sadly, not in school textbooks, so to learn, even through fiction, of our past is a thrill. Oftentimes, fiction makes history that much more intriguing to those who would rather watch paint dry than crack open a history tome. 

Regardless, I feel rather excited for this film. I’ve loved Peter Dinklage in the movies he’s been in over the years—yes, that includes his smaller role in Elf. I certainly plan on reading the novel (hopefully) before it’s released because, aside from being interested in the story, it’s interesting to see what was changed from the original text to fit a film, as much of a stickler as I am about that. As long as these projects keep faithful to the source material, that’s what should matter most.  

The film adaptation of The Thicket will screen at the Deauville Film Festival in France and be released in domestic theaters on September 6th of this year. 

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