WILD HORSE NINE First Clip Sends John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell Into Trouble
Put John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell together as a pair of CIA agents, send them to Easter Island in 1973, throw in some political turmoil and personal baggage, and you’ve got the makings of a wonderfully strange Martin McDonagh movie.
The first clip has arrived for Wild Horse Nine, the anticipated new crime dramedy from Martin McDonagh, and it offers an early taste of the trouble awaiting Malkovich and Rockwell’s characters. The film is set to launch next week at the Venice Film Festival before arriving in theaters later this year.
Set shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup, Wild Horse Nine follows CIA agents Chris and Lee, played by Malkovich and Rockwell. The longtime partners are sent from Santiago to Easter Island on orders from their bureau chief, MJ, played by Steve Buscemi.
A CIA assignment on a remote island already sounds like the kind of situation McDonagh could have a lot of fun tearing apart, but Chris and Lee are carrying plenty of baggage with them. The two men find themselves confronting ugly pieces of their past while getting caught up in conspiracies unfolding around them.
Things get even messier when Chris forms an unexpected connection with two rebellious students, played by Mariana di Girolamo and Ailín Salas. That relationship threatens to derail the entire trip and turn what should be an assignment in paradise into something considerably more dangerous.
The movie is described as a dark comedic drama in the vein of The Banshees of Inisherin, which gives us a pretty good idea of the uncomfortable territory McDonagh plans to explore.
His movies have a knack for putting damaged, stubborn people into increasingly terrible situations and somehow finding the humor hiding inside all that misery.
Wild Horse Nine also brings McDonagh and Rockwell back together after Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. That film earned seven Academy Award nominations and won two Oscars, with Rockwell taking home Best Supporting Actor and Frances McDormand winning Best Actress.
This will be McDonagh’s first feature since The Banshees of Inisherin, which picked up nine Oscar nominations in 2023, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.
The cast also includes Tom Waits and Parker Posey joining Malkovich, Rockwell, Buscemi, di Girolamo and Salas. That is a fantastic collection of actors for McDonagh to unleash on this kind of dark, character-driven crime story.
Searchlight has set Wild Horse Nine for a November 6, 2026 theatrical release.
Check out the first clip and trailer and see what you think of Wild Horse Nine.