Esai Morales has a serious case of cottonmouth…

The 60-year-old Puerto Rican actor will star in the Western thriller Cottonmouth, which entered production last week in Oklahoma after receiving a SAG interim agreement.

In addition to Morales, who most recently appeared in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, the cast also includes Martin Sensmeier, Ron Perlman, Eric Nelsen, Jonathan Sadowski, Alyssa Wapanatâhk, James Landry Hébert and Kimberly Guerrero (The Glorias).

Brock Harris (Wild Game) is directing from a script he wrote alongside Jared Bonner.

Set in 1895, the film follows friends Ed and Frank (Sensmeier and Sadowski) who become brutal enemies in Oklahoma frontier territory when a rivalry develops over a woman (Wapanatâhk) who is set to inherit a prominent saloon. After a bounty hunter (Nelsen) makes Ed disappear to a tortuous prison run by a sinister warden (Perlman), he must learn the ways of an outlaw from a prison-mate (Morales) to escape and exact his revenge.

“Making a western in my home state is the ultimate blessing. With these legendary performers, we’re delivering a tall tale on sacred land,” said Harris. “Revenge is a dish best served with a smoking gun.”

Concourse and Rebullium recently teamed up on thriller Model House, which sold to Shout! Studios at TIFF and will see a rollout across multiple platforms, starting with a theatrical launch in early spring 2024.

Harris’ comedy film Dance Dads (2022) took home the audience award at the Austin Film Festival.