Orlando Bloom, Andie MacDowell in 'Red Right Hand' are 'undeniably electric' together

Orlando Bloom and Andie MacDowell star in the dark, gritty thriller Red Right Hand, from the filmmaking sibling duo Ian and Eshom Nelms.

Red Right Hand release date: Feb. 23
Where to watch Red Right Hand: Available on VOD platforms, buy or rent through Apple TV
Cast: Orlando Bloom, Andie MacDowell, Garret Dillahunt, James Lafferty, Chapel Oaks, Scott Haze, Alexandra Park
Directors: Ian Nelms and Eshom Nelms
Runtime: 111 minutes

Magnolia Pictures

Red Right Hand

Buy Red Right Hand for $14.99, or rent the movie for $5.99

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The film, written by Jonathan Easley, is really a redemption story, set in Kentucky. While Cash (Bloom) strives to live a relatively quiet life with his widowed brother-in-law Finney (Scott Haze) and niece Savannah (Chapel Oaks), his good intentions are halted when Big Cat (MacDowell), a local crime boss, and her crew of goons reappear in his life. Cash has a history with Big Cat, and it turns out his brother-in-law does as well, which leads Cash right back under her rule.

While the Nelms brothers have written several of the movies they've directed in the past, including Fat Man with Mel Gibson and Walton Goggins, and Small Town Crime starring John Hawkes, Anthony Anderson and Octavia Spencer, Easley's script was something that really spoke to the filmmakers.

"We grew up in a rural area, ... we grew up on a horse ranch in central California, and there was something about the characters, the landscapes, the world that was built, that really drew us in," Ian told Yahoo Canada.

Orlando Bloom, Andie MacDowell are 'fireworks' when they share the screen

Early on in the process, Bloom was someone the directors had in mind for Cash.

"Envisioning him in that role, we were kind of looking for something to do with him," Ian said. "When this came across our desk, we were just ... thinking, oh my God if he was down to do a role like this, I think there could be some magic there."

"We had a great sit down with Orlando after our film Small Town Crime and we hit it off really well over breakfast one day," Eshom added. "I was like, 'I can't wait to work with this gentleman, what can we find that hits the sweet spot for him.'"

"He had done Retaliation and another [movie] called Zulu, and he was really stretching himself there and doing some great work. Then when Red Right Hand came across, we're like, ... this could be really exciting to see him put on the skin of Cash."

A force in Red Right Hand is MacDowell's Big Cat, being tasked with portraying this particularly cruel villain.

"She was obviously in our discussions and thoughts and minds, but she was just not somebody that we thought would do a role like that," Ian said. "Her agent got her the script and she read it, and then came to us and said 'Hey, I really enjoyed this script. I want to play this character.' And we were just like, 'Holy sh-t! Really? Amazing!'"

The Nelms brothers also revealed that MacDowell brought forward a lot of her own ideas for her character, including costumes, to help the character jump off the page.

"Ian and I loved working with Andie in every scene, watching her turn on Big Cat, and then that interplay between her and Orlando at times was undeniably electric," Eshom said.

"You could tell there'd been a relationship between the two. ... Those two really I thought were fireworks together."

'It starts with just not compromising, as much as possible'

In order to build the worlds in which the Nelms brothers movies live, they identified that a lot of that work comes down to the location.

"You try to put as much of that on the page as you can, but when you land things change," Ian said. "There's always some craziness that you're trying to fit, it feels like when you get there, a round peg into a square hole."

"Whether we're looking for Cash's cabin, or the actual farm that they live on, or Big Cat's estate, or even the restaurant that we're having a scene in, all that stuff speaks volumes when you're shooting. It's got to look great and it's got to feel, spiritually while you're in there, what you want it to feel like on the page when you wrote it, or when you see it in your head."

Eshom shared that they spent days driving around Kentucky, combing the state to find the best locations for Red Right Hand.

"We don't compromise," he said. "It's got to be a home run or we're like, why are we doing this?"

"It's a team effort ultimately, but it starts with just not compromising, as much as possible," Ian added.