Laysla De Oliveira is slated to co-star in upcoming rodeo flick Cowboy, the directorial debut feature film from Cameron Duddy, bass player for country band Midland, The Hollywood Reporter can reveal.
Oliveira (Lioness, Locke & Key, Guest of Honour) joins a cast that had already included Ben Foster, Rudy Pankow, Gabriel Basso, Midland lead singer Mark Wystrach and retired NFL veteran Taylor Lewan.
Cowboy follows the story of Foster’s Lee “Babe” Midnight, described as a “washed-up rodeo legend drifting between small-time shows and shady deals” who ends up becoming a mentor to Pankow’s young aspiring rodeo rider Clif Casey. Oliveira will play Alejandra Cruz, Lee’s ex-girlfriend and mother to an 11-month-old son.
Other than Oliveira, Cowboy also adds Simon Rex (Red Rocket), Carlos Pratts (Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, McFarland, USA) and Cameron Sault in supporting roles, the latter of whom is making his acting debut. Rex will play Lee’s former rodeo partner who’s now wheel chair-bound following a riding accident, while Pratts will play another successful rodeo rider. Sault will play Steve, “a rough and rowdy member of the road dogs group Vaqueros Galacticos” who Like Sault himself, is deaf. Sault was discovered through Deafinitely For All Entertainment, a Deaf founded production company focused on highlighting the deaf and hard of hearing community in the entertainment business.
Cowboy is the first picture coming out of Paint Horse Pictures, a new banner out of Range Media Partners‘ Nashville division. Duddy and Midland are management clients at Range’s Music division, which also represents artists including Shaboozey, Jack Harlow and Noah Cyrus. When first announcing Cowboy last month, Paint Horse said it is looking to “produce films deeply rooted in Americana and its pioneering spirit, bringing compelling narratives from the backroads to big screens.”
Prior to his feature-length debut, Duddy was also a respected music video director, directing the videos for hits like Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk,” Mars’ “24K Magic, Fifth Harmony’s “Worth It” and John Mayer’s “Last Train Home,” among others. Cowboy’s screenplay comes from Adair Cole, based on a story Duddy wrote with Midland guitarist Jess Carson.
“This is a personal story for me,” Duddy said in a statement when the film was announced in June. “It’s a film about what it takes to grind it out on the road chasing your dreams, and the emotional and physical toll it takes on all of us, most of all the people we love.”
Cowboy’s producers include Endgame Entertainment’s Lucas Smith, Range executives Matt Graham and William Lowery, and Ian Bryce of Ian Bryce Productions. Foster is also executive producing with David Keinath and Jordan Yospe for DFA entertainment. The other executive producers include Brightlight Productions’ Shawn Williamson, Endgame’s James D. Stern and Paint Horse’s Sydney Allen. Range Select is co-representing the film’s global film rights alongside UTA’s Independent Film Group.