Kelly Reichardt has kicked off production on her next film. She’ll follow up 2016’s “Certain Women” with “First Cow,” IndieWire reports. Set in 1820s Oregon and China, the film tells the story of fur trappers. FilmScience (“I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore”) is producing.
“First Cow” follows Cookie Figowitz, who works as the cook for fur trappers trekking through the Oregon Territory. He “joins up with the refugee Henry Brown, [and] the two begin a wild ride that takes them from the virgin territory of the West all the way to China and back again,” the source summarizes. No word on who will play Cookie or Henry.
Ion Cinema writes that the project is inspired by Jonathan Raymond’s 2004 novel “The Half Life.”
“First Cow” reportedly started filming today, November 2, and will wrap December 11.
“Certain Women” was named Best Film at the London Film Festival. The Montana-set story centers on the loosely connected lives of an attorney (Laura Dern), a married couple in the midst of building a home (Michelle Williams and James LeGros), and a rancher (Lily Gladstone) who forms a connection with a young lawyer teaching night school (Kristen Stewart).
“Night Moves,” “Meek’s Cutoff,” and “Wendy and Lucy” are among Reichardt’s credits. In 2017 MoMA hosted a mid-career retrospective of her work.