Fast-rising director Jeff Nichols is hard at work on his follow up to this year’s Mud, and it looks like he’s trying to match his prior work in the casting department. Mud starred Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon, with McConaughey’s performance in particular drawing high praise. A tall order, to be sure, but Nichols already has Michael Shannon signed on and, according to Variety, is currently in talks with Joel Edgerton as well. Edgerton, of course, most recently appeared in The Great Gatsby, where most critics counted his performance alongside Leonardo DiCaprio’s as some of the best elements of the film.

Edgerton is fast becoming one of Hollywood’s most sought after talents. He’s currently shooting the long-suffering western Jane Got A Gun, starring Natalie Portman, and has in the pipeline Double Hour, which he’ll co-star in with Michelle Williams, Black Mass (still seeking a replacement for or agreement with Johnny Depp), and Felony, co-starring Jai Courtney (A Good Day to Die Hard), which he also wrote and is producing. Edgerton also wrote the story (though, unlike Felony, not the screenplay) for the Australian post-apocalyptic film The Rover, starring Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson.

Director Jeff Nichols

The new Nichols project doesn’t even have a title yet, but the little that has been revealed describes the film as “a present-day sci-fi chase film.” Which seems like a contradiction of sorts, but Nichols clearly has a vision for what he wants. Earlier this year, Nichols told Empire, “I really want to make a certain kind of movie… it’s like a sub-genre movie, a chase film. I like working in genre and subverting it – I think each of my films has been a genre film that you dismantle – and I’m trying to do the same thing here. I’m putting the focus on the characters, rather than the genre elements.”

Works for us. Be sure to check back in at mxdwn Movies for more news on the project as it rolls towards production.