Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar will direct a short film called “Strange Way of Life” that will star both Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, the director revealed in an interview Tuesday.
The 30-minute film is a Western and will be done in English when it kicks off production this August. Almodóvar will also shoot the project ahead of working on his next feature, “A Manual For Cleaning Women” starring Cate Blanchett, which was originally billed as his official English-language debut after a lengthy career working with Hollywood stars but only in Spanish.
“Strange Way of Life” stars Hawke and Pascal as a pair of former hired-gunslingers in the Old West who have reconnected after working together more than 25 years earlier. But it soon becomes clear that the reason for their meeting is not strictly friendly or coincidental.
Almodóvar told IndieWire that the film will be shooting in the same desert region of Almería in Spain where Sergio Leone famously shot “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,” though he doesn’t intend for the film to directly reference that film or Leone’s other Spaghetti Western classics.
“I’m not consciously referencing those movies,” he said. “I don’t know what it will be like, except that it will be mine.”
The project is set up at Almodóvar’s own Madrid-based production company El Deseo. He’ll also be partnering with his brother, producer Agustín, and Saint Laurent and creative director Anthony Vaccarello are serving as costume designers and producers on the film.
Almodóvar’s most recent film was the Oscar-nominated “Parallel Mothers” with Penelope Cruz, and he also directed the short film “The Human Voice” starring Tilda Swinton.
Ethan Hawke most recently appeared in “The Black Phone,” and Pascal starred in “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” with Nicolas Cage and will soon be seen in “The Last of Us” series for HBO.
