Director: John Hillcoat Starring: Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie, Kate Winslet, Woody Harrelson ReleaseDate: February 19th, 2016 The red-band trailer for Australian director, John Hillcoat's (The Proposition, The Road, Lawless), Triple 9 promises brutality and seemingly staggering action. One of those directors who bridges the gap between independent cinema and Hollywood - on the one hand his films have decent budgets and name stars and elaborate set-pieces; on the other they are thematically and artistically closer to the art-house - Hillcoat's latest actually looks more likely to be a blockbuster than an indie, but he gets mention here because this might finally be the film that pushes him into the mainstream (and, besides, he'll always be an indie director at heart). Bolstered by a frankly astonishing cast consisting of the likes of Chiwetel Ejiofor and Kate Winslet, Triple 9 follows corrupt cops and criminals who together plan an elaborate heist to stave off the Russian Mafia. If that doesn't sound like the most original idea, then keep in mind that Hillcoat's previous efforts have been more about the characters within his plots, rather than the actual plots themselves (think The Road, which is ostensibly about an apocalypse but which is really about a father and son's struggle to survive it.)
