Watch: David Gordon Green Goes Back to Gritty Drama With First Trailer for ‘Joe,’ Starring Nicolas Cage

You’d be hard pressed to single out a contemporary filmmaker who took a
detour more surprising than the one David Gordon Green did. After
drawing comparisons to the work of Terrence Malick for poetically
capturing southern life via the small-scaled indies “George Washington,”
“All the Real Girls” and “Snow Angels,” Green opted to go mainstream
with the gross-out comedies “Pineapple Express,” “Your Highness” and
“The Sitter.” He surprised last year by opening his best received film in years, “Prince Avalanche,” a unique blend of his lyrical qualities paired with his mainstream
comedic ones. And this year he looks to continue his indie comeback with the hard-hitting drama “Joe,” based on the gritty novel by Larry Brown.

The film, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year where it was swiftly acquired by Roadside Attractions, stars Nicolas Cage as an ex-con who develops an unlikely bond with a 15 year-old (“Mud” star Tye Sheridan) from a broken home. Indiewire’s Eric Kohn, who caught the film at TIFF, called the film “both a comeback for Cage and Green.” The just-released international trailer below sure gives further indication that that’s the case.

Roadside has yet to announce a release date.