"When Padraic McKinley first received screenplay from producers Nathan and Simon Fields, he loved the atmospheric world it summoned forth. Original screenwriter Matthew Booi, along with Leo Scherman and Matthew Chapman, had created something special with this Western-adjacent Depression-era crime-thriller. But as a longtime editor across film and TV ( Igby Goes Down , ), as well as a producer with strong instincts about story and pacing, McKinley knew the screenplay still needed work."
"McKinley asked him to play lead character Samuel Murphy, an incarcerated man desperate to reunite with his young daughter before she disappeared in the court-mandated foster system. "Ethan was doing his Paul Newman documentary at the time and we started dreaming up a new story," McKinley said prior to the Sundance premiere of . That's when Hawke suggested Shelby Gaines, a writer and sound designer he'd worked with, for the rewrites."
Padraic McKinley reworked an atmospheric Western-adjacent Depression-era crime-thriller originally by Matthew Booi, Leo Scherman and Matthew Chapman, applying his editorial and producing instincts to strengthen the screenplay. Ethan Hawke joined to play Samuel Murphy, an incarcerated man desperate to reunite with his young daughter before she enters the court-mandated foster system; Hawke recommended Shelby Gaines for rewrites and Gaines later co-wrote the tense score with his brother Latham. McKinley made the project his feature directorial debut and co-edited it. The plot follows Murphy as he cuts a deal with Warden Clancy (Russell Crowe) to smuggle gold from a mine for his signed release, assembling fellow convicts Rankin, Singh, Letender and Anna under armed supervision for a dangerous wilderness trek.
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