Yorgos Lanthimos in Talks to Direct Gothic Western 'The Hawkline Monster'

The Hollywood Reporter

By Borys Kit

December 16, 2019

Hal Ashby and Tim Burton previously took runs at trying to mount an adaptation of the novel by Richard Brautigan.

Yorgos Lanthimos, the Greek filmmaker behind the acclaimed period drama The Favourite, is in negotiations to direct New Regency’s adaptation of the novel The Hawkline Monster. 

Roy Lee, one of the producers behind the horror hit It; Andrew Trapani (Winchester); and Steven Schneider, who last worked on Glass and Pet Sematary, are producing the Gothic Western pic. Lanthimos will also produce with Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element Pictures, the shingle behind Lanthimos' films The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Lobster.

The move kicks the decades-in-the-making project into a higher gear after Regency picked it up in June when it made a deal with the estates of both the author, Richard Brautigan, and filmmaker Hal Ashby (Being There).

Ashby spent over a decade trying to mount Hawkline Monster in the 1970s and 1980s but sparred with Brautigan over the script, even as he had Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman, and later Jeff and Beau Bridges, on board for the two-hander.