Navy Vet Sturgill Simpson Goes Hollywood in ‘The Hunt’

Navy veteran Sturgill Simpson made his name as a fiercely independent country singer, and now Hollywood's taken notice and lured him into movies. In the new trailer for the humans-hunt-humans thriller "The Hunt," Sturgill makes an appearance as one of the hunted.

"The Hunt" comes from low-budget horror powerhouse Blumhouse Productions, and they've enlisted "Lost" creator Damon Lindelof to produce and co-write the screenplay. He's joined by co-writer Nick Cuse and director Craig Zobel, both of whom worked with Lindelof on the cult HBO series "The Leftovers." Lindelof and Cuse are also the creators of the upcoming HBO "Watchmen" series, a sure-to-be controversial superhero series coming this fall.

"The Hunt" features a shadowy group of rich folks who pay large sums for the privilege of hunting random humans in a big-game setting. This is pretty much the same plot as three other excellent movies: "The Most Dangerous Game" (1932); director John Woo and Jean-Claude Van Damme's classic "Hard Target" (1993); and the underrated Scott Adkins-starring sequel "Hard Target 2" (2016).

Simpson plays a dude from Orlando who's credited as "Kid Rock," probably because he resembles the rapper-turned-hillbilly singer. Betty Gilpin, now a star because of "GLOW," goes all-in with her Mississippi accent as the leader of hunted. She's aiming for a face-off with Hilary Swank, practically twirling an invisible handlebar villain mustache as the one-percenter who organizes the annual hunt.

Emma Roberts ("American Horror Story"), Ethan Suplee ("My Name Is Earl"), Ike Barinholtz ("MADtv"), Glenn Howerton ("It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia") and Amy Madigan ("Field of Dreams") also star. The movie is due in theaters on Sept. 29.

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Simpson made news at Comic-Con when he announced that he's releasing a new album called "Sound & Fury in September and that it will be the soundtrack to a new anime film coming to Netflix at the same time. Japanese-style animation is about as far from the frost-tips-and-skinny-jeans ideal that most male country singers are striving to meet in 2019, so it'll be a shock if the Nashville establishment embraces his stubborn, singular talent this time around.

Sturgill watchers will also want to note the upcoming home video release of Jim Jarmusch's zombie-hunter flick "The Dead Don't Die." Simpson makes a brief appearance as a "guitar zombie" and recorded the movie's theme song. The movie drops on Digital on Sept. 3, and the Blu-ray and DVD follow on Sept. 10.