Bill Skarsgård is set to star in the new Gus Van Sant film Dead Man’s Wire

Deadline has just revealed that Gus Van Sant’s upcoming project, Dead Man’s Wire, has secured Bill Skarsgård and Dacre Montgomery for his leads. The movie is a hostage thriller that is based on a true story. “The film follows a former real estate developer who takes the mortgage banker who did him wrong hostage, demanding $5 million and a personal apology.” The script was written by scribe Austin Kolodney.

The producers on Dead Man’s Wire include Cassian Elwes (Bride Hard, Mudbound), Joel David Moore (Bride Hard, The Immaculate Room), Tom Culliver, Sam Pressman, Mark Amin, Remi and Noor Alfallah, Andrea Bucko, Matt Murphie, and Paula Paizes. Exec producers are Jon Gosier, Emily Salveson, Rishi Bajaj, Cami Winikoff, Michael Merlob, Divya Shahani, Jordan Claire Robbins, Robert MacLean, Svetlana Dali, Konstantin Elkin, Vlad Lapidus, Oliver Trevena, Lee Broda, Jeff Rice, John Pitts, Alan Helene, Nini Le Huynh, and Veronica Radaelli. WME Independent is in charge of handling the worldwide rights.

The producer, Elwes, shared his enthusiasm for the project, “It’s an absolute thrill to reunite with one of the greatest directors in the world and I can’t wait to work with the fantastic actors he’s assembling for this film.” Zach Glueck of WME Independent also stated his excitement, “We’re really proud to be out in the market with an absolute giant of cinema working in such a commercial genre space.”

You’ll be able to catch Skarsgård soon as he becomes another reimagining of a notorious horror figure next to his stint as Pennywise. He plays Count Orlok for Robert Eggers’ Christmas release, Nosferatu. The look of the character is shrouded in mystery, but Skarsgård has said that getting in the make-up and costume was like “conjuring pure evil. It took a while for me to shake off the demon that had been conjured inside of me. … I do not think people are gonna recognize me in it.“

Eggers teased, “This Orlok is more of a folk vampire than any other film version. That means he’s a dead person. And he’s not like, ‘I look great and I’m dead.’ Folk vampires in some ways are more visually similar to zombies. The reason why he looks the way he looks and he dresses the way he’s dressed is because for the first time in a Dracula or Nosferatu story, this guy looks like a dead Transylvanian nobleman . Every single thing he’s wearing down to the heels on his shoes is what he would’ve worn. That’s never been done.” He also said, “Only when audiences arrive in theaters on premiere day this Christmas will the general public see the results of the full hair, make-up, and prosthetics.“