Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen and Renee Zellweger will topline the Western drama Appaloosa, with Harris directing from the screenplay he co-wrote with Robert Knott, according to Variety. New Line will distribute the film.

Filming is set to start October 1st in New Mexico, giving New Line a strongly cast project to shoot before a possible strike by actors next summer.

The project re-teams Harris and Mortensen, who worked together on New Line's A History of Violence. The story is adapted from Robert B. Parker's novel of the same name, centered on a pair of friends hired to protect a lawless town suffering at the hands of a renegade rancher. The arrival of an attractive widow disrupts their plans.