By “The Guard” and “Calvary” director John Michael McDonagh has set an interesting cast for his upcoming 1970s Ozploitation-inspired thriller “Fear is the Rider”.
The project was first announced back in 2022, seemingly stalled, and now is back in full swing with pre-production already underway.
Aussie legend Ben Mendelsohn will lead the ensemble which includes Abbey Lee, Toby Wallace, Eliza Scanlen, Brenton Thwaites, Daniel Henshall, Thomas Turgoose, Rhys Wakefield, Shane Jacobson, Susie Porter, and Jacqui Purvis.
Based on Gabriel Bergmoser‘s 2020 novel “The Hunted,” the story centres on a woman, deep in the Outback in search of her missing mother, who becomes the target of a brutal family of serial killers.
Alongside an ex-con and a young girl, she faces a desperate fight for survival against ruthless predators in a desolate, haunting landscape.
McDonagh reportedly has major ambitions here – the project is said to be the first in a planned trilogy of thrillers with the second, currently titled “Fear is the Rider: Australia Day”.
That one is expected to be based on author Kenneth Cook’s 2016 novella “Fear is the Rider” which gives the overall trilogy its name.
In that book a young man driving from Sydney to Adelaide takes a desert detour when a distraught young female journalist flags him down – a woman who has escaped a desert-dwelling nomad who has her jeep, her axe and… her scent.
Cook is famous for the novel “Wake In Fright” which was adapted to the screen in 1971 as arguably the most famous non-“Mad Max” Ozpolitation film of all time.
McDonagh, Elizabeth Eves, Kate Glover, Trevor Matthew and Nick Gordon produce. The first of the films will begin shooting in early 2025 and will be sold at this year’s American Film Market.
Source: ScreenHub
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