Paul Schrader‘s new film The Card Counter isn’t even out yet – it finally arrives in cinemas next week – but he’s already preparing for his next project. Sigourney Weaver and Joel Edgerton have signed on to lead a thriller titled Master Gardener for the legendary Hollywood screenwriter.
Edgerton will play the titular gardener, Narvel Roth, the meticulous horticulturist on the estate of Mrs. Haverhill, played by Weaver. When Mrs. Haverhill insists that Narvel take on her wayward and troubled great-niece Maya as an apprentice, it upends his life, threatening to draw him back to his violent past.
Schrader will write and direct, and the film looks like it will hit some of the key themes that have defined his work over his career, namely his “God’s lonely man” trope. “When the idea first started it was one of my male protagonists,” said Schrader, “but then these two women intervened and it became something more complex and unique.”
Schrader has previously written classics such as Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, and he’s coming off a career resurgence after 2017’s First Reformed was one of the films of the year, earning him an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
Fingers crossed that Schrader can continue his good run with his First Reformed follow-ups. The Card Counter opens in U.S. cinemas Friday, September 10th, while production on Master Gardener is expected to begin early next year.
#Peace.Love.MasterGardener
