Joe Penhall (The Road) will write the screenplay for the Sam Mendes-directed Butcher’s Crossing, an adaptation of John Williams’ 1960 Western novel at Focus Features.
Set during the 1870s, the adventure story centers on a man who drops out of Harvard and heads west to the small Kansas town of the title. There, he joins the search for a great buffalo herd.
Mendes and his Neal Street Prods. partners Pippa Harris and Caro Newling are producing with Polsky Films’ Gabe and Alan Polsky.
