‘The Brigands of Rattlecreek’: Park Chan-wook to Direct Ultra-Violent Western

Here’s a collaboration you never knew you needed until now: Park Chan-wook and S. Craig Zahler are teaming for the ultra-violent western “The Brigands of Rattlecreek.” Park (“The Handmaiden,” “Little Drummer Girl”) will direct from a script by Zahler (“Bone Tomahawk,” “Dragged Across Concrete”), and the long-gestating project finally has a home in Amazon Studios. Zahler’s script received pride of place on the 2006 Black List, when it was still called “The Brigands of Rattleborge.”

According to Collider, which first reported that Amazon picked up the project, “Rattlecreek” follows “a sheriff and a doctor who seek revenge against a group of bandits who use the cover of a torrential thunderstorm to rob and terrorize the occupants of a small town.” Anyone who saw “Bone Tomahawk” knows that Zahler is no stranger to disturbing violence in a gunslinging setting, but whether his latest has as out-there a climax remains to be seen. He most recently wrote and directed “Dragged Across Concrete,” which premiered at the Venice Film Festival last fall.

As for casting, Matthew McConaughey is said to be Amazon and producer Bradley Fischer’s first choice to play the doctor and are seeking another A-list actor to star opposite him as the sheriff.

Park’s sensuous “The Handmaiden” was also an Amazon release, and his most high-profile film to date; he previously directed “Oldboy” and the rest of his “Vengeance” trilogy.