John Hillcoat and Nick Cave have been joined at the hip ever since the director’s first film “Ghosts… of the Civil Dead” (which also starred the Bad Seed) but with “The Wettest County” it looks like the musician — who is again taking on writing and scoring duties — will be getting some help on the soundtrack.
CMT reveals that 84 year-old bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley has recorded three songs for the upcoming film. It seems that Hillcoat is going for some musical authenticity in the Prohibition-era tale led by Tom Hardy, Shia LaBoeuf and Jason Clarke as the Bondurant brothers who run a bootlegging gang but find their moonshine dynasty in Franklin County, Virginia threatened by the authorities wanting a cut. The supporting cast features Jessica Chastain as Hardy’s love interest Maggie; Mia Wasikowska as LaBeouf’s belle; newcomer Dane DeHaan as Labeouf’s partner-in-crime; Guy Pearce as a violent deputy with the brothers in his sights, and Gary Oldman as a gangster who employs the boys. It’s not known if Stanley has penned new tunes for the film or delivered renditions of traditional songs, but we suppose we’ll find out soon enough.
While there is no exact release date yet, when the The Weinstein Company picked up the film in May, they said it was being readied for a release by the end of year. It’s a pretty short timeline considering the film only started production at the end of February, but what Harvey wants, Harvey gets. No word yet on any other songs or artists being picked up for the film, but the era certainly lends itself to a pretty wide swath of great music, so we’ll be anxious to see what else crops up.
