Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke embark on a steamy yet turbulent romance in the upcoming film, “Strange Way of Life.”
The trailer for the short drama film released on Wednesday, in which Hawke and Pascal star as two former lovers who have been reunited after decades.
In the minute-long first-look, Silva (Pascal) passionately yells at Jake (Hawke), telling him, “You never loved me — you never loved anyone in your life!” Jake replies by whipping out a gun, pointing it at his face and ominously whispering, “Don’t say that.”
After the trailer dropped, Twitter users flooded the app with praise for the Hollywood duo’s upcoming project.
“A man [Pascal] rides a horse across the desert that separates him from Bitter Creek. He comes to visit Sheriff Jake [Hawke],” the movie’s writer and director, Pedro Almodóvar, explained of its plot in a statement shared by the Festival de Cannes.
“Twenty-five years earlier, both the sheriff and Silva, the rancher who rides out to meet him, worked together as hired gunmen,” his synopsis of the 30-minute film set in a grizzly Western realm continues.
Almodóvar added, “Silva visits him with the excuse of reuniting with his friend from his youth, and they do indeed celebrate their meeting, but the next morning Sheriff Jake tells him that the reason for his trip is not to go down the memory lane of their old friendship.”
In a conversation with IndieWire last June, the Spanish director called the pair’s relationship “animalistic” when comparing it to 2005’s hit romance drama “Brokeback Mountain,” which also tells the story of two men who maintain a tortured love affair over the course of decades.
Alongside Hawke and Pascal, the gay western film also stars Pedro Casablanc, Manu Ríos, George Steane, José Condessa, Jason Fernández, Sara Sálamo, Ohiana Cueto and Daniela Medina.
“Strange Way of Life” is slated to debut at the Cannes Film Festival next month.
