John Sayles is a Hollywood legend. Sayles began his film career, like so many others, working for independent, low-budget producer Roger Corman. Sayles was discovered by Frances Doel, the script supervisor for Corman’s New World Pictures. She hired Sayles to rewrite a Jaws knockoff they were struggling to correctly frame.
That project went on to become the now-legendary Piranha (1978). He soon demonstrated an ability to rapidly create scripts that met Corman’s standards. Sayles was called:
“…the greatest screenwriter to ever work at New World.”
While he earned money for writing movies like Alligator and The Howling, he used the cash to fund his time on passion projects. He also garnered a reputation as the most effective script doctor in Hollywood.
He has spent nearly thirteen years trying to get a movie off the ground, and now it looks like Sayles has done it. His passion project has funding. The financing is in place for his Western I Passed This Way, according to Variety.
The movie will shoot this fall in Spain and the Canary Islands. It is an adaptation Eugene Manlove Rhodes’ acclaimed 1927 novella Pasó Por Aquí, and it follows Ross McEwen, a restless cowboy who impulsively robs a bank and escapes into the harsh New Mexico Territory. Pursued by legendary lawman Pat Garrett and his determined young deputy, Ross hides at an isolated Mexican homestead devastated by diphtheria. As the family’s condition worsens, he faces a moral crossroads: abandon them and continue his flight to Mexico, or remain behind to care for them and inevitably face arrest.
Oscar winners Amy Madigan and Chris Cooper will star, with Thomas Mann, Ted Levine, Ron Perlman, and Cameron Monaghan co-starring.
