Ed Harris gets $300K grant for film adaptation of novel by Kim Zupan

Ed Harris is heading to the director’s chair for a novel to film adaptation for which he has received a $300K grant.

Ed Harris is a versatile, multi-talented actor and his work on Westworld as the Man in Black is a testament to just how amazing he is. But now Harris is focusing on taking his talents to the director’s but in a very interesting way.

As of Friday, his directing project is officially making moves. But what exactly is he working on? Ed Harris plans to direct an adaptation of Missoula author Kim Zupan’s novel according to Independent Record.

According to a news release from Governor Steve Bullock’s, the production team has received a $300,000 grant. Earlier this year, Harris was out scouting locations for the film and visited the cities of Fort Benton and Great Falls, Montana.

After reading Harris’s script, Zupan hopes that the script is adapted because he would love to see the areas of Montana he loves so much make it to the big screen. After Harris’ phenomenal performance as Man in Black over the last two seasons of Westworld, he has re-emerged in the industry in an entirely different way.

Ed Harris spoke of his passion project often and has mentioned that he was seeking funding to make it happen–and it finally will! In an interview with the LA Times, Harris said the story is “really hauntingly beautiful. It’s got some suspense and great drama but it’s a real character thing.”

It’s been about a decade since Harris last directed anything and after three years of trying to adapt this novel, he is more than ecstatic to take the project forward. In Zupan’s novel, the story follows a sheriff’s deputy who is assigned an overnight shift at the county jail. Due to problems in his personal life, he begins to befriend one of the prisoners and finds that they have more in common than he could have imagined.

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