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9 months ago
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EXCLUSIVE: Following a competitive bidding situation, Shout! Studios has acquired North American rights to The Dead Don’t Hurt, the Western written, directed, produced by and starring Viggo Mortensen (Thirteen Lives) which world premiered at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, where co-star Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) was honored with the TIFF Tribute Performer Award.
Acquired from Talipot Studio, Recorded Picture Company, Perceval Pictures, and HanWay Films, the film marks Mortensen’s second effort on both sides of the camera on the heels of 2020 father-son drama Falling. Pic will be released across all major entertainment platforms, beginning with a wide theatrical launch this summer.
A story of star-crossed lovers on the western U.S. frontier in the 1860s, The Dead Don’t Hurt centers on Vivienne Le Coudy (Krieps), a fiercely independent woman who embarks on a relationship with Danish immigrant Holgen Olsen (Mortensen). After meeting Olsen in San Francisco, she agrees to travel with him to his home near the quiet town of Elk Flats, Nevada, where they start a life together. The outbreak of the Civil War separates them when Olsen makes a fateful decision to fight for the Union.
This leaves Vivienne to fend for herself in a place controlled by corrupt Mayor Rudolph Schiller (Danny Huston) and his unscrupulous business partner, powerful rancher Alfred Jeffries (Garrett Dillahunt). Alfred’s violent, wayward son Weston (Solly McLeod) aggressively pursues Vivienne, who is determined to resist his unwanted advances, and when Olsen returns from the war, he and Vivienne must confront and make peace with the person each has become.
Per Mortensen, “The aim of THE DEAD DON’T HURT is to do justice to the life of a uniquely resilient woman in a lawless and isolated part of the U.S. Southwest in the 1860s. Vivienne is a woman for all seasons; courageous, unfailingly honest and direct, yet capable of great empathy. The idea was 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. We are very fortunate to have the talented Vicky Krieps embody this role.”
Jordan Fields, Shout’s Senior Vice President of Acquisitions and Originals, praised the film as “a thrilling frontier story from the point of view of two fiercely resourceful immigrants, played with preternatural complexity and empathy by Vicky Krieps and Viggo Mortensen.” The exec added that “the ambition, the sacrifice, the violence and the beauty of the wild west are all artfully layered into this most American of westerns. It’s a triumph of talent in front of and behind the camera, and we’re so proud to share it with audiences hungry for a film that captivates them long after it’s over.”
Praised by Deadline’s Pete Hammond as a film that John Ford and Howard Hawks “would love,” the indie also stars Colin Morgan, Ray McKinnon, W. Earl Brown and Atlas Green. Regina Solórzano, Jeremy Thomas and Mortensen produced alongside EPs Roberto Paxson, Gabriel Terrazas, Ivan Kelava, Daniel Berkerman, Jesper Morthorst, Paula Astorga Riestra and Peter Watson. Gia Galligani and Angela Blair co-produced.
Fields and Vice President of Business Affairs Steven Katz negotiated the deal for Shout!, with Hanway Films CEO Gabrielle Stewart and Business and Legal Affairs chief Celine Moret repping the filmmakers. Check out new stills from the film above and below.
