Nicolas Cage will saddle up for his first Western with The Old Way

Behold the year of the Western. With Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon and Jane Campion’s The Power Of The Dog on the way, Nicolas Cage is finally getting in on the gun-slinging action in his newest project The Old Way. Of his wide array of projects—from rom-coms to art-house films to run of the mill action blockbusters—the accomplished actor has yet to hitch a ride out West.

In The Old Way, Cage takes on the role of Colton Briggs, a former gunslinger who now runs a general store and prefers a quiet life with his family. When a gang of outlaws murder his wife in cold blood, Briggs returns home to find his world as he knew it on fire. He digs up his ol’ sidearm and saddles up with an unlikely partner: his twelve-year-old daughter.

“After 43 years in cinema, I’m only now being invited to the important and storied genre of the Western with both The Old Way and Butcher’s Crossing,” Cage says. “Being born and raised in the West, this is another good match and long overdue. I’m excited and compelled by the complex characters of both Briggs and Miller, and to find new ground to play at 57 is indeed galvanizing.”

The Old Way will be directed by Brett Donowho (Acts Of Violence), with Carl W. Lucas (The Wave) penning the script. The actor will star in not one, but two Westerns in the next year. Cage will shoot The Old Way in Montana back-to-back with Butcher’s Crossing. In that Gabe Polsky film, Cage plays the leader of a group of buffalo hunters who guide a Harvard drop-out pursing his dreams of heading West.

Cage’s other forthcoming projects include The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent with Pedro Pascal, Tiffany Haddish and Neil Patrick Harris, and The Retirement Plan with Ashley Green and Ron Perlman.