Atlas Independent, the affiliate company of Charles Roven's Atlas Entertainment, announced today Ian McShane (Sexy Beast, Deadwood), will star opposite Patrick Wilson in The Man on Carrion Road. McShane will play the role of Leland; an aging retired Sheriff of a small border town with violent tendencies. Gonzalo López-Gallego (Apollo 18, Open Grave) will direct the film based on Nils Lyew's script. William Green, Aaron L. Ginsburg, and Andy Horwitz of Atlas Independent will produce. MICA Entertainment is financing with Relativity International selling the picture overseas. The film is slated to being production in April.

Ian McShane was recently seen playing King Brahmwell in Jack the Giant Slayer for director Bryan Singer and as Beith, the leader of the dwarves in Rupert Sanders' Snow White and the Huntsman. In 2012, McShane did a memorable turn as Leigh Emerson, a sadistic Santa serial killer on Ryan Murphy's American Horror Story: Asylum alongside Jessica Lange and Zachary Quinto. Previously, McShane starred as Blackbeard in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series for his role in Deadwood. McShane currently has Brett Ratner's Hercules: The Thracian Wars in post-production and will next be seen in the comedy Cuban Fury opposite Nick Frost, Rashida Jones and Chris O'Dowd.

The Man on Carrion Road is the visceral story of a botched Mexican cartel deal in the back roads of a border town. The town's new sheriff (played by Patrick Wilson) must team up with the retired lawman (played by Ian McShane) he replaced to investigate the source of the deal in order to stop a mysterious cartel butcher and his systematic brutalization of the town's residents. A gritty and modern thriller, The Man on Carrion Road collides head on with the pathos and hard realities that inhabit life along the border; it's a story that explores the ambitions, difficulties, and consequences that turn men into monsters and monsters into reality.

The Man on Carrion Road will begin shooting in early April in Utah.

This is the second film of a two picture deal in which Atlas Independent will produce, MICA Entertainment will finance, and Relativity International will sell internationally. The first film in the deal is the recently wrapped Mojave, written and directed by William Monahan and starring Oscar Isaac and Garrett Hedlund.

McShane is represented by ICM, Independent Talent, Gallant Management and Nelson Davis Wetzstein.