Melissa Barrera of the Scream franchise is set to star in the Western thriller In the Cradle of Granite for director Ariel Escalante
Scream (2022) and Scream VI star Melissa Barrera was fired from Scream 7 when comments she made about the Israel-Hamas war didn’t go over well with executives at Spyglass Media, but that doesn’t appear to be slowing her career. She recently starred in the horror rom-com musical Your Monster, which was given a PVOD release earlier this week. She’ll be starring with Simu Liu of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in an untitled espionage techno-thriller series for the Peacock streaming service and producer James Wan. And Deadline reports that she’ll be starring in a Western thriller called In the Cradle of Granite.
The English-language debut of Costa Rican director Ariel Escalante (Domingo and the Mist), In the Cradle of Granite is based on an original screenplay by Jay Holmes and set in the brutal American west of the late 1800s. The film will see Barrera taking on the role of a young mother who struggles to provide for her family after her husband dies and the local town folk won’t do business with her. But when she finds the body of a notorious wanted outlaw on her homestead, she strikes a deal with the bounty hunter who killed him — setting out across the dangerous frontier in hopes of a big reward and a better future.
Joel David Moore, Rishi Bajaj and Daniel Taborga of Balcony 9 Productions, Jonathan Sadowski and Daniel Pancotto of Ad Lunam Ent, and Gregory Thomas are producing the film, with Chase Hinton, Lynette Gurule-Thomas, and Michael Thomas serving as executive producers.
Barrera told Deadline, “Ariel is a beautifully poetic filmmaker and I am honored to join him in his English language debut. We are both very intentional in the narratives we choose to tell and seek to entertain while giving life to characters and situations that serve as a mirror for society. Jay Holmes’ script is thrilling and hypnotizing and I can’t wait to bring it to the big screen along with the teams at Ad Lunam and Balcony 9.“
Escalante added, “I find Jay Holmes’ script to be the perfect opportunity to bring my directorial vision to the United States. And working alongside such a strong and amazing actress like Melissa Barrera only fuels my desire to turn this into both an exciting contemporary take on the western genre and a bold reflection on colonial violence.“
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