Mateo Gil shoots twilight western in Bolivia
On March 5, Gran Canaria-born director Mateo Gil, one of Alejandro Amenábar’s most loyal collaborators, started shooting his second feature, Blackthorn, 11 years after his debut work, Nobody Knows Anybody (1999). This western (a "profoundly moral" genre, according to the director) centres on the relationship of rivalry and camaraderie between a mature Butch Cassidy and a young go-getter.
The film is in English with a few roles in Spanish. Its nine-week high-definition shoot will take place entirely in Bolivia (where shooting recently wrapped on Icíar Bollaín’s new film, Even the Rain [+see also:
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film profile]).
The cast will be led by US actor Sam Shepard, Spain’s Eduardo Noriega, Northern Ireland’s Stephen Rea and Peruvian actress Magaly Solier, who, thanks to the Golden Bear-winning, Oscar-nominated The Milk of Sorrow [+see also:
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film profile], is becoming a well-known face in Spanish cinema. This will no doubt be helped by the upcoming release of Fernando León’s eagerly-awaited new work Amador.
Although Gil has achieved an impressive reputation as co-screenwriter on all Amenábar’s films, from Thesis (1996) to Agora [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2009), with the sole exception of The Others (2001), in the case of Blackthorn he is working with a script penned by Miguel Barros. The story tells of the encounter between outlaw Butch Cassidy, who leads a semi-secluded life breeding horses in Bolivia, and Spaniard Eduardo Apocada, during Cassidy’s journey back to his homeland, the United States.
Blackthorn will be produced by Arcadia Motion Pictures and Aiete Ariane Films, with executive production by Ibon Cormenzana, for a budget of €4.8m.
(Translated from Spanish)
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