Jacques Audiard to direct John C. Reilly in The Sisters Brothers adaptation

A PROPHET and RUST AND BONE director Jacques Audiard is set to make his English-language debut with THE SISTERS BROTHERS, an adaptation of the 2011 Patrick deWitt historical novel of the same name. The Palme d’Or-winning French filmmaker announced the news yesterday on a radio station while promoting his latest movie DHEEPAN, and Audiard also says John C. Reilly will star as one of the leads, although there's no word on exactly who he will be playing in the Western.

Book synopsis:

Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn't share his brother's appetite for whiskey and killing, he's never known anything else. But their prey isn't an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm's gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a living–and whom he does it for.

With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt pays homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable comic tour de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters–losers, cheaters, and ne'er-do-wells from all stripes of life–and told by a complex and compelling narrator, it is a violent, lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier that beautifully captures the humor, melancholy, and grit of the Old West and two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love.

I haven't read the novel, but it has received excellent reviews. The Los Angeles Times says “If Cormac McCarthy had a sense of humor, he might have concocted a story like Patrick deWitt's bloody, darkly funny western," and the Washington Post describes it as "weirdly funny, startlingly violent and steeped in sadness." Which other actors would you like to see star in THE SISTERS BROTHERS?

John C. Reilly has a few upcoming films, including Thomas Bidegain's THE COWBOY and Yorgos Lanthimos' THE LOBSTER, and the latter will be shown in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.