Sam Worthington and Jack Quaid Saddle Up for Gritty New Western Blood on the Promontory

Sam Worthington is having a bit of a renaissance, if you can call it that, after diving back into James Cameron’s Avatar universe. The third film, 'Avatar: Fire and Ash', is still raking in the cash, as you'd expect from the bloke who’s been the face of these blue space epics for nearly two decades. If you’ve lost count, the Avatar films (so far) have raked in north of $6.7 billion worldwide in the past 17 years, with Worthington front and centre as Jake Sully.

His screen time may be trimmed down in the next instalments (let’s face it, Cameron loves to shift the narrative goalposts), but Worthington’s not hanging up his mo-cap suit yet. He’s on board for Avatar 4 and 5, even though the word at the studio watercooler is that both are on the receiving end of some heavy budget slashing. Don't be surprised if the next chapter involves fewer CGI flying whales.

Worthington's Slate: Netflix Thrillers and a New Western

The world beyond Pandora is looking busy for Worthington as well. He’s leading a new Netflix miniseries called 'I Will Find You', adapted from Harlan Coben’s 2023 novel. This one’s set to be bleak — Worthington plays a bloke locked up for his own son's murder (which he didn’t commit, naturally), only to get tipped off by his ex-sister-in-law that things aren’t as simple as they look. Cue the inevitable gritty investigation and attempts to clear his name. That’s dropping on Netflix before too long.

But here’s where things get properly interesting — and, frankly, a bit surprising: Deadline’s reporting that Worthington’s just signed on to headline a western drama film, 'Blood on the Promontory', with a main cast that's not short of recognisable faces.

The Cast: A Quick Rundown

• Sam Worthington (Avatar, Clash of the Titans) – fresh from his blue alien days
• Jai Courtney (The Suicide Squad) – the Aussie hardman, one of the few in this cast with previous cowboy cred
• Jaeden Martell (The Boy in the Iron Box) – one of the younger, up-and-comers
• LaMonica Garrett (Lioness, and turn up enough TV westerns and you’ll spot him)
• Jack Quaid (The Boys) – he's just wrapped up a seven-year stint as Hughie Campbell on Amazon’s superhero satire and probably looking for a change of pace

What We Know About the Film

So far, they’re being secretive about who’s playing who, but here’s the premise: five convicts, all chained together at the ankles, are legging it through the mountains after a violently botched train robbery. Picture 'The Defiant Ones' smeared in coal dust and set in the American West — you get the vibe. The script is coming from Evan Cooper, who’s cut his teeth doing production on series like 'Lawmen: Bass Reeves' and '1883', so at least the period detail isn’t likely to look naff.

Directing all this: Ray Mendoza, who isn’t exactly a household name but seems keen to make an impression with a gritty western. Production details are still thin, but Worthington's never teamed up with Courtney or Quaid before, which is a bit of a novelty given how everyone seems to cross paths eventually in Hollywood. Out of all of them, only Jai Courtney’s actually done a proper western lately, so the rest are in for a steep learning curve (and possibly a lot of dust).