Mortensen & Zellweger in a Ed Harris directed Western?

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

Another Western is on the way. A small resurgence in the genre is brewing, big names are attaching themselves to these projects and it's great to see. The latest is titled Appalosa and will star Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris in a reunion of the two actors from A History of Violence along with Renee Zellweger. Ed Harris will also be stepping into the director's chair for the movie he co-wrote with actor Robert Knott, who appeared in Harris' first directorial effort Pollock in 2000.

Story is adapted from Robert B. Parker's novel of the same name, centered on a pair of friends hired to protect a lawless town suffering at the hands of a renegade rancher. The arrival of an attractive widow disrupts their plans.

Viggo Mortensen doesn't do nearly enough acting but the great thing about how he picks and chooses his projects, is that every film with him in feels like an event. The same thing with Daniel Day Lewis (although Mortensen isn't as erratic as he) and I think it suits them both well.