Nicolas Cage has been signed to play the lead in The Old Way, which marks his first-ever stint in a Western feature film.

The film is directed by Brett Donowho of Acts of Violence fame from a script by Carl W Lucas. The plot revolves around Colton Briggs (Cage), a former assassin who now runs a store and lives a peaceful life with his family.

After a gang of badmen murders his wife in cold blood, he is forced to go back to his bad ways, this time with an unlikely partner: his 12-year-old daughter.

Capstone Pictures and Intercut Capital are co-financing and producing the film. Capstone's Christian Mercuri is executive producing alongside David Haring. R Bryan Wright and Micah Haley are producing for Intercut Capital alongside Sasha Yelaun, Robert Paschall, Jr and Johnny Remo of Skipstone Pictures.

Donowho and Cage's Saturn Films are also producing the movie. Fred Roos, Carl W Lucas, Joshua Bunting and Mehrdad Moayedi are attached as executive producers on the project. 

Cage was most recently seen in the drama The Pig, directed by Michael Sarnoksy in his feature debut. The actor will next act in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, in which he is set to play a fictionalised version of himself.