Ian Nelms and his brother Eshom Nelms have picked up a couple of stars to lead their follow-up to the Mel Gibson, Walton Goggins-led Fatman. Per Deadline, Orlando Bloom (Carnival Row) will play the lead role of Cash in Red Right Hand from writer Jonathan Easley with Andie MacDowell (Maid) on board as the cruel Queenpin Big Cat whom Cash works for. The action thriller begins production in Kentucky later this month.

Red Right Hand follows Cash in his attempts to live a quiet life and watch over his dear niece Savannah in a little town amidst the Appalachian hills of Odim County. Cash’s life changes when the town’s leader, Queenpin Big Cat, orders him to serve her once again. Asked to carry out some unsavory deeds for Big Cat, Cash realizes the lengths he’s willing to go to keep his niece and the town they live in safe, including murder. His journey to protect all he has left turns into a nightmare that leaves him questioning whether what he’s doing is right and wrong.

A pair of John Wick producers, Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee​​​​​​, is on board to produce Red Right Hand. Joining the two on the production end are Jason Tamasco and Zak Kristofek for Traction and Mike Gabrawy from Asbury Park Pictures, the company financing the film. Executive producing for the film is Galen Smith and Marc Danon. Asbury Park is producing in cooperation with Traction.

The Nelms brothers have mostly lived on the independent side of filmmaking with work such as Waffle Street and Lost on Purpose, though the absurd Fatman drew in big-names Gibson and Goggins as Santa and an assassin out to end his coal stuffing ways with Marianne Jean-Baptiste also along for the ride. Back in 2021, they got involved in television as executive producers on the comedy series Everyone is Doing Great from James Lafferty and Stephen Colletti. Among other projects, they’ve also teamed with Octavia Spencer for a sci-fi project and are developing a script with Focus Features surrounding the life of Carol Burnett.

With Bloom and MacDowell, they add a pair of veteran stars with experience in some of the biggest films franchises in history. Bloom, is known for his roles in Pirates of the Caribbean and The Lord of the Rings, though he’s recently made the rounds in indie films Retaliation and The Outpost. He’s still found plenty of recent mainstream success through Amazon‘s Carnival Row, which he’ll soon appear in the second season of. MacDowell also has an impressive resume that includes a Golden Globe for 1993’s Short Cuts and a Spirit Award for Best Female Lead in Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Netflix‘s Maid has earned her recent acclaim, and she’s next set to appear in the young adult novel adaptation Along for the Ride for the streamer.

No release window is currently out for the film, but the Nelms brothers have made Red Right Hand a project worth tracking with some strong initial castings.

via Collider