Netflix has revealed the launch date and key art for Concrete Cowboy and announced writer/director Kurt Sutter‘s feature directorial debut, This Beast.
Sutter (Sons of Anarchy, Southpaw) will write, direct and produce This Beast. Blumhouse Productions will produce the feature film for the streaming service.
In the movie, an 18th century English village is besieged by a mysterious and elusive beast. Dozens of innocents are slaughtered and the mayhem is driven to puritanical heights by religious fanaticism.
The impossible task of killing the beast falls to a lowly trapper who promises he can stop the carnage. But for him this hunt is not a professional mission, it’s a deeply personal one.
The idea was inspired by The Beast of Gévaudan, the story about a mysterious beast that terrorized a French village in the 1760s.
Jason Blum will produce for Blumhouse with Carla Hacken, who will produce under her banner Paper Pictures
The executive producers include Blumhouse Television’s Chris McCumber and Jeremy Gold.
“Bringing my disturbing, familial story sensibility into the Blumhouse world just seemed like something that had to happen. And This Beast is the perfect project for that marriage. And Netflix is the perfect venue for that bloody ceremony,” said Kurt Sutter.
“We’ve long been fans of Kurt and his unparalleled storytelling — that’s both visceral and packs an emotional punch. We’re excited that Blumhouse is producing his first feature for Netflix,” added Jason Blum, CEO and founder of Blumhouse.
Directed by first-time feature filmmaker Ricky Staub from a script by Staub and Walser, Concrete Cowboy will hit the streaming service on April 2, 2021. The movie was an official selection at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival.
When fifteen year-old Cole (Caleb McLaughlin) is expelled from school in Detroit, he is sent to North Philadelphia to live with Harp (Idris Elba), his estranged father. Harp finds solace in rehabilitating horses for inner city cowboys at the Fletcher Street Stables, a real-life black urban horsemanship community that has provided a safe haven for the neighborhood residents for more than 100 years.
Torn between his growing respect for his father’s community and his reemerging friendship with troubled cousin Smush (Jharrel Jerome), Cole begins to reprioritize his life as the stables themselves are threatened by encroaching gentrification.
Inspired by the novel Ghetto Cowboy by G. Neri, Concrete Cowboy is produced by Tucker Tooley, Lee Daniels, Idris Elba, Dan Walser, Jeff Waxman and Jennifer Madeloff.
Byron Bowers, Lorraine Toussaint, Clifford “Method Man” Smith and members of the Fletcher Street Stables also co-star in this moving father-son drama about a teen caught between a life of crime and his estranged father’s vibrant urban-cowboy subculture.
You can view the official key art for Concrete Cowboy above.