Sam Worthington, awaited in James Cameron’s forthcoming Avatar 4, will first switch registers by taking on a new Western.
Since 2009, Sam Worthington has portrayed Jake Sully, the hero of Avatar, one of the most successful film sagas at the box office of all time. Two of James Cameron’s three installments have surpassed 2 billion dollars, the first nearing 3 billion (thanks to re-releases), while the latest brushes a billion and a half. It’s therefore a colossal machine, with colossal budgets and colossal promotional campaigns.
Yet, the Australian actor has never managed to become a Hollywood mega-star, even though opportunities were plentiful around the early 2010s. In the same year as Avatar, he landed a major role in Terminator Salvation, then slipped into the boots of Perseus for Clash of the Titans. But his career stumbled after the failure of Wrath of the Titans, and since then, the actor has largely oscillated between anecdotal projects, overlooked supporting roles, and Avatar. He could have rebuilt his career with his supporting part in the Horizon duology, Kevin Costner’s ambitious Western epic, but its crushing flop likely doomed the planned sequel.
But the actor was recently announced as part of the cast of another Western, with a rather promising director.
NEW HORIZON
Blood on the Promontory As revealed by Deadline, Sam Worthington will be the lead cast member of Blood on the Promontory, Ray Mendoza’s next film (co-director of the very intense Warfare in 2024). It will thus mark the director’s first solo feature, while the story will be written by Evan Cooper, who will also make his feature-length screenplay debut. The actor is expected to play one of five inmates who will attempt to escape after a brutal train robbery.
Another twist: they will all be chained together in the style of O Brother, Where Art Thou? by the Coen brothers or The Chain with Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier, except that these five must trek across the mountains to hope to reclaim their freedom.
The rest of the cast will include Jaeden Martell (It, Knives Out), Jack Quaid (The Boys), LaMonica Garrett (1883, Lioness) and Jai Courtney (currently in the series Dutton Ranch). They will naturally portray the other inmates with whom Worthington’s character will have to collaborate.
In addition to Horizon, Sam Worthington has also starred in Westerns The Last Son (2021) and In the Silence of the West (2014). Before returning in Avatar 4, slated for 2029 (though not officially greenlit), the actor will also appear in The Exiles, a crime thriller with David Duchovny, and the historical drama Zero A.D with Gael García Bernal.
He will also return to Netflix (after The Fracture, and Titan in the United States), this time for the series Stay Close, the next title produced in partnership with Harlan Coben and due June 18.
