Everyone and their (his?) mother loves The Proposition, the Nick Cave-penned Australian western starring Danny Huston as a villain who could give Chigurh a run for his money in sheer badassery. It's hard to blame them, since movies that gritty and tough don't come along very often. (As modern westerns go, I think 3:10 to Yuma is better, but it certainly isn't as awesomely brutal.) Two years after that film became a critical darling and a sleeper hit of sorts, director John Hillcoat -- who is currently in production on Cormac McCarthy's The Road -- has signed with Columbia to direct an adaptation of a not-yet-released novel by Matt Bondurant called The Wettest Country in the World. The book is about a trio of gangsters -- the author's grandfather and grand-uncles -- who ran the moonshine trade at the peak of the Prohibition Era, and the writer who tracked them in search of a scoop.

It was back in May of last year that news about the next Nick Cave/John Hillcoat collaboration hit the air -- Death of a Ladies' Man, starring Ray Winstone. But then the air went silent, until now. The actor recently talked with MTV about his future projects, and he says that he's still set to star in the film. If you're a Winstone fan, it might please you to know that beyond this, Beowulf, and the upcoming Indiana Jones movie, he's also looking into a role in The Minutemen (the latest indie from the Nee Brothers), and while he said he won't be part of King's X, he is joining Ian McShane, John Hurt, and Tim Roth in 44 Inch Chest -- written by the men behind Sexy Beast.

But back to Death of a Ladies' Man. Yes, it is based on Leonard Cohen's song (Nick Cave is a fan and even performed on Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man), and it's much different than the previous Aussie western. The film focuses on a traveling salesman played by Winstone who is "addicted to sex" and uses "his door-to-door beauty products as a means to meet women." Considering the fact that the song has lines like: "He offered her an orgy in a many-mirrored room," I imagine this'll be a little racy.

Furthermore, this May, an interview with Cave was published in Harp, and he said: "John asked me to come up with another script, something small that he could do quickly. That said, it's now suddenly taking a long time to get going." He goes on to note that it's an English character study, and after a year of struggle, it will get made as soon as Hillcoat finishes a "big American film" -- which I presume is The Road. With Guy Pearce potentially replacing Viggo Mortensen, the film will finally get into production soon, and maybe Guy will follow along to the next. As a huge Proposition fan, I can only hope!

Because both Italian film festivals apparently need all the glitz and glamor they can get, the Venice Fest this year will see the awarding of the first (annual?) Gucci Group Award, created to recognize "personalities outside the movie industry who have made a remarkable artistic contribution to film over the past 18 months." The most prominent among the nominees is Australian singer/songwriter Nick Cave who recently moved into screenwriting; The Proposition, which he scripted, has received world-wide acclaim. In addition to Cave and two others, Helena Christensen (!) is nominated for her acting work in Allegro, as are Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno for their direction of the innovative soccer doc Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait.

The winner will be announced on September 8 "during a gala ceremony held in the 14th century Palazzo Ducale on the Piazza San Marco." Ooh la la! Needless to say, all the attendees will be impeccably dressed.

Despite a wildly misleading, spoiler-filled trailer that presents it as a violence-driven action film, The Proposition is in fact a western much more in the style of Terrence Malick than that of Sergio Leone. Written by musician Nick Cave and directed by John Hillcoat, the film is dominated by the barren landscape of wildest Australia, and manages the nearly impossible task of combining great tension with languorous pacing. The violence, when it occurs, reflects not Leone’s glorious, long-awaited explosions, but rather the horror and suffering of real life. Nothing about the west in The Proposition is romantic or seductive: this place is lawless and dirty and full of death.

Set in Australia during the era of the bushranger (criminals who hid in the Outback to avoid capture; Ned Kelly, subject of the Heath Ledger film of the same name, is easily the most famous) that fell during the last half of the 19th century, The Proposition opens with the brutal capture of two such men, Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) and his younger bother, Mikey (Richard Wilson). Along with older brother Arthur (Danny Huston), the two men are known to have raped and killed a woman and her family, so both face death by hanging. Desperate to capture Arthur, however, and unable to extract Arthur from his Outback hiding place, the British commander (Maurice Stanley, wonderfully played by Ray Winstone) offers Charlie a deal: if he finds and kills his brother by Christmas -- nine days’ time -- Mikey will be spared the hangman’s noose. Just as fiercely protective of his simple-minded brother as the Captain suspected, Burns accepts the deal; Mikey is taken to prison and his brother begins his search.

Australian musician Nick Cave is a man who wears many creative hats. You may know of him mainly for his prolific work as a solo artist and with his groups The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Or you may know him as an actor and composer. Sight and Sound has an excellent interview with Nick Cave the screenwriter, as he and director John Hillcoat discuss The Proposition, a film directed by Hillcoat off a script written by Cave, he says, in just three short weeks.

The Proposition is an Australian Western pitting a lawman, Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone), against three brothers, Arthur (Danny Huston), Charlie (Guy Pearce), and Mike (Richard Wilson). Fourteen-year-old Mike is captured by Stanley, who threatens to put him to death in seven days if Charlie doesn't return to turn in older brother Arthur. The film also stars Emily Watson as Stanley's wife.

The film is racking up fairly strong reviews on the fest circuit. I wanted to catch The Propositon at Sundance but missed it; now I'm just going to have to keep my fingers crossed that it shows up at another fest - Seattle International Film Festival, perhaps? I can only hope.

[ via Green Cine Daily ]