Martin McDonagh calls 'Wild Horse Nine' his most political film yet
Director Martin McDonagh says his upcoming movie is a direct jab at Hollywood apathy. Per Variety, he told an audience at the Zurich Film Festival that "Wild Horse Nine" is his most political film to date.
McDonagh said he finds it exciting to release this "monster" into a world where he feels there's too much artistic neutrality. He argued that many creators say nothing and lack an opinion, and he's excited to do the opposite.
The film is a black comedy featuring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as intelligence operatives. Their story is set around Easter Island just before the 1973 coup in Chile.
McDonagh noted the story's modern parallels, saying lines he wrote about 1973 were recently interpreted by test audiences as being about current events in Venezuela. He also mentioned that jokes about Russian interventions from a century ago now connect to the conflict in Ukraine.
During a festival masterclass, the filmmaker joked about his own past. "I used to be a hit man. People don't know that," McDonagh said. "They thought it just was plays and then films. It was plays, killing and then films."
He also reflected on his transition from playwright to Oscar-winning filmmaker, crediting actors like Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell for protecting him from Hollywood interference, which he described as coming from "children with a lot of money."
