Director of The Road makes Red Dead (advert disguised as) movie

The film has been wrangled into cinematic (polygonal?) shape by one John Hillcoat, stellar director of last year's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy'sThe Road, as well as Nick Cave's critically-adored Australian western dramaThe Proposition(don't ever confuse it withThe Proposal, as I did when looking it up a second ago). And just as importantly as far as I'm concerned, he's directed music videos for Depeche Mode, Siouxie and the Banshees, The Manic Street Preachers and Atari Teenage Riot. Face-melting Digital Hardcore soundtrack doubtful, but I live in hope that Rockstar have given him a long leash on this one.

Being a short though, and one debuting on a commercial TV station (Fox, at Midnight, Eastern and Pacific) and tied into a recently-released mega-profile game, and made entirely out of said game, what we're probably really talking about here is a long stealth trailer for Red Dead, intended to show off the visuals and hook people into its world. You know, the one you can only continue to explore if you buy the game. Which makes that trailer you just watched above actually a trailer for a trailer. And in effect, this article just an advert for a trailer for a trailer.

Is it just us, or is game marketing batshit mental now? But hey, the advert-disguised-as-film thing worked for The Wizard. Super Mario Bros. 3 nearly did as well as the Powerglove as a result of that one.

David Houghton
Long-time GR+ writer Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.