Cannes Director Spotlight: John Hillcoat

John Hillcoat
New Film: Lawless
Country: Australia
Age: 50
Best Known for: Successfully pulling off an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "unfilmable" novel, The Road

Cannes History
None yet. Lawless will be Hillcoat's first Cannes film.

His Resume
Though his resume is light on titles, Hillcoat has been directing films since 1988's Ghosts... of the Civil Dead, a thriller with a sci-fi bent. Since then, he's earned quite a bit of attention for 2005's The Proposition and 2009's The Road, which, despite long delays, proved worthy of its incredible source material.

Both of Hillcoat's most well-known films feature languid pacing, moral ambiguity, complex heroes, and distressful locales. The two share little else, however. The Proposition is a thoroughly Australian film, both in subject matter and on- and off-screen talent. The Road was a turn toward Hollywood, what with Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, and the popular novel it's based on.

Hillcoat On-Demand
Hulu Plus: N/A
iTunes: The Road
Netflix Instant: N/A
Vudu: The Road

Lawless
"Set in the Depression-era Franklin County, Virginia, a bootlegging gang is threatened by authorities who want a cut of their profits." —IMDb

Lawless promises to blend aspects of Hillcoat's last two features. The cast is 100% Hollywood (Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Jessica Chastain, Gary Oldman) but with an Australian twist (Guy Pearce, Mia Wasikowska). The subject matter (Prohibition-era bootleggers), again, is very American in nature, but the look and feel of the film (based solely off the trailer, embedded below) is reminiscent of The Proposition.

But whether the film is more The Proposition or The Road is really irrelevant. It looks like it could be something special, despite a series of delays and title changes. Though it'll probably be a good deal less bleak than The Road, Hillcoat fans shouldn't be scared off. The film's admission to Cannes (instead of Venice where many were predicting it'd premiere) signals that this is a piece of art, not a commercial project being skillfully manipulated by Weinstein Co.

That said, few are expecting much in the line of awards attention, at least at the festival. But check out the trailer and make that call for yourself. The film opens at the end of the summer, which means we won't have to wait long to judge the finished product.