'We thought of ourselves as being a conduit between Jim and the performers, and we cast 80 percent or over Native American, and we cast very specifically to be faithful and to be accurate to the book and to the experience,' Andrew says.

Andrew adds that they relied on their mostly Native American actors to keep them honest.

Alex says the brothers always knew that as non-Native Americans they had to tread carefully on Native American material. Throughout the film, Virgil struggles with who he is and where he belongs. 'It never was a cinch, but it'd become a torture.' 'Comin' home is not easy anymore,' Virgil says. It opens with a few seconds of classic, big-sky landscape but then moves to the lead character, Virgil First Raise, waking up hung over in a ditch. 'A Conduit Between Jim And The Performers'įrom the first moments, it's clear the film isn't a typical Western. With that, Alexie signed on as associate producer. And he said, 'Not only do I think you guys are perfect for it I think you're the only people who should do it because you knew Jim and because you grew up in this landscape.' And he said, 'I'll help you.' ' 'And, in fact, we asked our friend Sherman Alexie, who's sort of one of the preeminent Native American authors out there and was hugely inspired by James Welch and by this novel.

'The first question we asked when we thought about adapting this novel was: Is it OK for us to do this?' Alex says. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. |a Initial Bemis load m2btab.test019 in 2019.Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Winter in the Blood Author James Welch

Winter in the blood book