This year, Viggo Mortensen saved a junior football team in a cave in Ron Howard‘s “Thirteen Lives” and re-entered the new flesh with David Cronenberg in “Crimes Of The Future.” Now, for his next project, he’ll star in and direct a Western love story with a formidable co-star: “Corsage” actress Vicky Krieps.
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The upcoming film takes place in the 1860s, with Krieps as Vivienne, a French Canadian woman who embarks on a relationship with Mortensen’s Danish immigrant Holger Olsen. After they sync up in San Francisco, the pair travel to the quiet town of Elk Flats, but The Civil War separates them, leaving Vivienne at the mercy of a ruthless rancher, his wayward son, and a corrupt mayor. When Olsen returns, he and Vivienne must confront and make peace with the people they’ve become.
Alongside Mortensen and Krieps, “The Dead Don’t Hurt” also stars Solly McLeod, Danny Huston, Garret Dillahunt, and Tom Bateman. Lance Henriksen and W. Earl Brown round out the main cast.
“The Don’t Don’t Hurt” is Mortensen’s follow-up to his 2020 directorial debut “Falling.” Several crew members from that film return to work with Mortensen again, including cinematographer Marcel Zyskind, production designer Carol Spier, art director Jason Clarke, and costume designer Anne Dixon.
“My aim is to do justice to the story of a uniquely resilient woman living in a lawless and isolated part of the U.S. Southwest in the 1860s,” Mortensen said in a press statement. “Vivienne is a woman for all seasons; courageous, unfailingly honest and direct, yet capable of great empathy. The idea is to not simply have a woman play the leading role in a Western, but to have her lead the way in our story by virtue of her fiercely uncompromising nature. Vivienne is a real woman who stands alone in her time and place because of her principled behaviour, forward-thinking, and passion for life. We are very fortunate to have the talented Vicky Krieps embody this role, and, with the help of the great team we have assembled thanks to Talipot Studio, we hope to do justice to her exemplary life.”
Production on “The Dead Don’t Hurt” begins next week in Ontario and British Columbia, Canada, with additional shooting in Durango Mexico. So, expect the film to have its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where “Falling” premiered in 2020.
