DEADLINE – EXCLUSIVE: Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen have been set to star in Wind River, a drama written by Sicario scribe Taylor Sheridan, who also is on board to make his feature directorial debut. Sicario producer Basil Iwanyk’s Thunder Road is producing this one with Peter Berg and Matthew George.

 

Sicario screenwriter Taylor SheridanThe pic, which begins shooting in March in Park City, centers on Cory (Renner), who works for the Fish and Game Department as a hunter of coyotes and other predators. Suffering after the death of his teenage daughter, he stumbles upon the raped body of a teenage girl frozen in the desolate wilderness. A rookie FBI agent (Olsen) who is unfamiliar with the terrain and weather enlists Cory to help her find those responsible.

 

The film is being produced by Iwanyk’s Thunder Road, Berg’s Film 44, George’s Savvy Media Holdings and Acacia Filmed Entertainment Llc., the latter a joint venture partner with the Tunicia-Biloxi Indian tribe. Elizabeth Bell, Star Thrower Entertainment are executive producing along with Riverstone Pictures, which is co-financing with Acacia.

 

Voltage Pictures is repping foreign sales at EFM in Berlin next month. CAA is handling domestic sales.

 

Renner, a two-time Oscar nominee, has been plenty busy keeping up with the Avengers and Mission: Impossible franchises. He also is executive producing with an eye to recur in Knightfall, a historical drama that was just given a straight-to-series order for a 2016 bow on History. He is repped by CAA, Untitled Entertainment and Patti Felker.

 

Olsen, also in the Avengers fold, is next up playing Hank Williams’ wife Audrey Mae in the Sony Pictures Classic biopic I Saw The Light, which has a March 25 release date. She is repped by Gersh and Brillstein Entertainment.

 

Sicario, a Thunder Road production, picked up three Oscar noms Thursday: for Cinematography (Roger Deakins), Original Score (Jóhann Jóhannsson) and Sound Editing (Alan Robert Murray). The drug-war drama starring Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro and directed by Denis Villeneuve has made $80.6M worldwide since its September release via Lionsgate.

 

The Wind River deal was negotiated by Neil Meyer repping Sheridan, Elizabeth Bell for Acacia, Jonathan Fuhrman on behalf of Thunder Road and David Matlof for Film 44.