First published in April 1985, Cormac McCarthy‘s historical western novel Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West has long been considered too dark and violent for a film adaptation to do the relentlessly horrific narrative justice. Directors like Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) and Todd Field (Little Children), who have never been strangers to making thematically challenging films, have tackled developing a Blood Meridian feature into a reality, but their efforts always ended in complete surrender. A tale of the dark days of the Old West whose violence and tone made The Wild Bunch look like an episode of Bonanza was never going to be an easy sell as a big-budget motion picture, regardless of what important names were attached.

The latest name to take a crack at filming the un-filmable is actor and director James Franco. Having already ventured into the world of cinematic adaptations of literary classics with film versions of McCarthy’s Child of God and William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying on his resume, Franco has long desired to be the one to bring Blood Meridian to the silver screen. A few years ago he even went as far as to shoot some test footage for his prospective adaptation, and managed to rope in some quality actors to help better visualize how Franco would approach a film based on the novel many consider to be Cormac McCarthy’s best.

To coincide with Child of God‘s upcoming U.S. theatrical release Franco has released the Blood Meridian test reel for all to gaze upon. You can watch the video here below.

The Counselor: Unrated Extended Cut
Blu-ray l DVD
Directed by Ridley Scott
Screenplay by Cormac McCarthy
Starring Michael Fassbender, Penelope Cruz, and Cameron Diaz
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Release Date: February 11, 2014

Of all the highly anticipated films released last year I don’t think any of them received the critical blanket party that greeted the opening of The Counselor, the pulpy drug world thriller that united influential filmmaker Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) and Pulitzer Prize-adorned author Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men, Blood Meridian), the latter having penned his first original feature screenplay. To say that expectations were high for this film is an understatement on the level of the scene in Easy Rider where Peter Fonda tells Dennis Hopper, “We blew it.”

People hated this movie, man. Hated it. Obviously The Counselor had its share of defenders amongst the filmgoing public and the shadowy agents of the blogosphere, but they were mostly silenced or shouted down as the star-studded noir plummeted to a 34% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a massively disappointing fourth opening at the box office. Scott has had his considerable share of theatrical flops that were later vindicated on home video in the form of extended and rejiggered director’s cuts. Not surprisingly, his latest film has received the same treatment and The Counselor may yet find the audience that either berated or ignored it on the big screen as twenty minutes have been added to this exclusive “unrated extended cut.”

Do these previously deleted scenes elevate Scott and McCarthy’s lurid, languid potboiler to the status of an underrated masterpiece? Is it possible that maybe, just maybe, the haters were hopelessly misguided? Well, let’s see…

The Counselor
Director: Ridley Scott
Screenwriter: Cormac McCarthy
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Édgar Ramírez, Rosie Pérez
20th Century Fox
Rated R | 117 Minutes
Release Date: October 25, 2013

Directed by Ridley Scott (Prometheus), The Counselor stars Michael Fassbender (Shame) as a nondescript lawyer whose one-time dalliance with the dangerous world of drug trafficking spirals out of control.

With a screenplay by Cormac McCarthy, the novelist who wrote No Country for Old Men and The Road, The Counselor is a chronicle of destruction – a bleak and brutal story of greed and the inevitability of suffering and violence.

Fassbender’s character, simply known as Counselor, gets mixed up with Reiner (Javier Bardem), a charismatic businessman who moonlights as a drug lord. Reiner lives an extravagant life complete with exotic clothes, high-end sports cars, and a ultra-modern villa populated with buff bodyguards and gorgeous women in bikinis.

Among those women is his girlfriend, Malkina (Cameron Diaz), a femme fatale who is in control at all times. Malkina is a hunter – a predator – with an affinity for watching her two pet cheetahs chase jackrabbits across the Chihuahuan Desert. Reiner knows he isn’t the smartest man and begins to suspect that the cunning Malkina will be his undoing.

A new trailer has been released for The Counselor, the new movie from director Ridley Scott and No Country For Old Men author Cormac McCarthy, who makes his feature screenwriting debut.

The movie tells the story of a lawyer who becomes involved in the dangerous world of drug trafficking, which quickly leads to everything spiraling out of control. It stars Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Dean Norris, Rosie Perez, John Leguizamo, Natalie Dormer, and Goran Visnjic.

You can check out the new trailer for The Counselor, which will be released on October 25th, below.

The first teaser trailer for director Ridley Scott‘s next movie, The Counselor, has found its way online. The movie is written by Cormac McCarthy, the author behind books like No Country For Old Men and The Road—his first produced original screenplay.

The movie stars Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem (complete with his new crazy hair), Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Dean Norris, Rosie Perez, John Leguizamo, Natalie Dormer, and Goran Visnjic. It tells the story of a lawyer (Fassbender), who gets in way over his head when he becomes involved in the dangerous world of drug trafficking.

You can check out the first trailer for The Counselor, which will be released on October 25th and is dedicated to Ridley’s late brother, Tony Scott, below now.