Christian Bale reuniting with Scott Cooper for Hostiles

Christian Bale is headed into unfriendly territory. The actor has just closed a deal to star in Hostiles, a Western drama reuniting him with Out of the Furnace director Scott Cooper.

Cooper wrote and will direct the film, which is set in 1892 and centers on an army captain who reluctantly agrees to escort a dying Cheyenne war chief and his kin back to tribal lands. Along the way they cross paths and join forces with a young widow to survive the harsh landscape and fierce Comanche tribes.

The film is a re-imagining of a 30-year-old manuscript by Oscar-winning screenwriter Donald Stewart (Missing). Cooper is producing alongside John Lesher and Ken Kao, and Kao’s Waypoint Entertainment is financing.

Hostiles is scheduled to start production in July.

Bale can currently be seen in The Big Short, and his other upcoming projects include Jungle Book: Origins, The Promise, and the Terrence Malick films Knight of Cups and Weightless. He recently exited Michael Mann’s Enzo Ferrari biopic.

Cooper most recently directed Black Mass.