Wild Horse Nine wasn’t an easy film for Martin McDonagh to crack. Before setting its 2026 release date, the British-Irish playwright and filmmaker struggled with the story through multiple drafts. However, one idea seemingly lined up the story beats exactly how the 56-year-old wanted them to.
The chief location of Wild Horse Nine, Rapa Nui, had a connection to the CIA-backed coup in Chile in the 1970s. Once McDonagh had this revelation, he was able to work his characters and their personalities into the story seamlessly.
Regarding the revelation, he said, “But it never quite gelled until I started thinking about what the CIA did in Chile in the ’70s, knowing that Rapa Nui is a sort of dependency of Chile. And it’s when that idea came about four years ago that everything seemed to fall into place.”
Sam Rockwell saw multiple versions of the story take shape
One of Wild Horse Nine’s principal stars, Sam Rockwell, saw multiple drafts of the story come and go. Rockwell plays Lee in the film, the CIA protege of John Malkovich’s Chris. McDonagh said, “I tried different variations of a story, usually with an older guy and a younger one. Sometimes they’d be like a father and son, once they were two actors. Sam read some of these versions.”
Regarding the drafts that he was privy to, Rockwell revealed, “I read a couple different drafts. And yeah, they [the two central characters] were actors at one point, and then they were CIA people. There were a lot of different drafts. But I signed on right away.”
Alongside Rockwell and Malkovich, the film’s stacked cast also includes Steve Buscemi, Mariana di Girolamo, Ailín Salas, Tom Waits, and Parker Posey, among others. The film is currently scheduled for release on November 6, 2026, in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Wild Horse Nine follows two CIA agents who are sent to Easter Island right before the 1973 Chilean coup. They wrestle with their past and the state of present conspiracies before forming a bond with a pair of rebel students threatens to mess up their mission.
Originally reported by Anuraag Chatterjee on ComingSoon.
