Vera Farmiga To Star In Indie Western 'A Thousand Guns'

Nothing makes me happy in quite the same was as seeing a small, odd western come together with a top-notch cast. I've got new hope for a film called A Thousand Guns, based in part on the fact that Vera Farmiga has just signed on. The film, which is about "a preacher's wife and her journey of revenge," has a few fun-sounding elements, like a demon gun called El Rojo and a band of seemingly ninja-like assassins. And in the middle of it all is Farmiga, as a missionary turned powerful gunslinger.

Variety says that Daniel Calparsoso (Guerreros) is directing from Russell Friedenberg's script. The film is set up at a new company, Prominent Pictures, with Frozen River producer Heather Rae as one of the chief officers.

The trade doesn't offer a lot of info on the film, but the Iron Circle Pictures website has plenty. From there comes this text, for example, which outlines the beginning of the film:

A THOUSAND GUNS is a rogue western with an unusual set of rules. A demon gun called El Rojo sets the stage in a world where the dead command the living. SABINA, her Protestant Priest husband BENEDIKT and their son, CLAUDE have left their German homeland for the promise of the New World. There, set against the endless backdrop of the west, they build a Protestant Mission; a tiny outpost at the headwaters of colonization.

Sabina finds herself in desperate times, when their congregation is attacked by a ruthless band of marauding STICK MEN led by the psychotic outlaw TIBURON VASQUEZ, who wields a demon gun called EL ROJO! Sabina and Claude escape only to watch helplessly as Vasquez pulls El Rojo with its gold trigger and dark red ruby handle from his hip. The malice that drives him registers across his grinning face as he squeezes the trigger on El Rojo and murders Sabina's husband. Sabina, her eyes red and swollen, digs her husband's grave. Claude listlessly flies a paper kite over the makeshift cemetery. Behind them BIG BULL, a middle-aged Indian man wearing a loose fitting leather vest and crossed ammunition belts holds his horse's reigns. They turn and the Indian and his horse are gone.

There's a lot more plot recap at the website — basically the entire film, in fact — so only check it out if you're not averse to spoilers. In the meantime, let's hope this one goes forward and that it attracts a cast equal to Farmiga.