PEDRO, I SWEAR

Pedro Almódovar Ropes Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal Into His ‘Brokeback Mountain’-Esque Short

Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke will star in this sure-to-be-steamy Western, one of Almódovar’s rare English-language works.

The Western is back in action, thanks to auteurs like Jane Campion and, now, Pedro Almódovar. While chatting with IndieWire about his career, the Parallel Mothers director revealed plans for his next film, a quick 30-minute jaunt with two all-star actors.

Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke have been tapped to lead Strange Way of Life, a Western shot in the same Spanish town as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Though most of Almódovar’s films are in Spanish, this new short will be shot in English—similar to his recent foray The Human Voice, which starred Tilda Swinton.

Though Almódovar didn’t reveal too much about Strange Way of Life, he did tease that Hawke and Pascal’s characters seem to be at odds; the former is a sheriff, and the latter is a gunslinger. After living on opposing sides of the desert for 25 years, one of them decides to hunt down the other in the vast sands of the Wild West.

“There will be a showdown between them, but really the story is very intimate,” Almodóvar said. He also suggested that the film is his “answer” to Brokeback Mountain, but didn’t reveal whether or not the film is romantic. “You can guess. I mean, masculinity is one of the subjects of the movie.”

We’ll take that as a “yes,” especially after Almodóvar’s touching, intimate Pain and Glory. And speaking of Brokeback Mountain, the director also opened up about his involvement with that film. Before Ang Lee was tapped to direct the romance, Almodóvar was in talks to lead the project.

“I think Ang Lee made a wonderful movie, but I never believed that they would give me complete freedom and independence to make what I wanted,” Almodóvar said. “Nobody told me that—they said, ‘You can do whatever you want,’ but I knew that there was a limitation.”

While Brokeback Mountain is perfect as it is, could you imagine the Talk to Her director’s version of the film? Well, with Strange Way of Life on the way, maybe we’ll see what a different take could’ve looked like.

As Pascal wraps his filming on The Last of Us for HBO and Hawke polishes off his work on The Black Phone, which was just released in theaters, the pair will meet their director in Spain. There’s sadly no word on a release date just yet.

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Fletcher PetersEntertainment Reporter

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