Jeff Nichols has never been a biker. Or interested in motorbikes. Hell, he doesn't even own one. But the Mud and Take Shelter writer-director knows what cool looks like. He knew it when he saw Danny Lyon's book of photos on his brother's bedroom floor decades ago: ‘It was the most complete view of a subculture I'd ever seen – it honestly felt like ingredients or instructions to go and make a movie’. And he knew it when he met Austin Butler pre-Elvis accolades: ‘There is a real thing to being a movie star, and he has it. The temperature in this room would change if he walked into it.’
Marrying the two – with Butler playing wildcard Benny, a man who fights first and asks questions later – Nichols’ latest film bowed at Telluride to rave reviews in September and is already generating awards buzz. No wonder, in the face of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strikes, Nichols and team pulled their planned 1 December release date just as Total Film went to press, to try to find a later date when their top-tier cast could walk the red-hot carpets and talk about gunning Harleys along the long, flat roads of the Midwest. Regardless of where it lands, The Bikeriders is a film that Nichols wants audiences to be prepared for, and to talk about now: of the pertinent themes, the talent of his ‘embarrassment of riches’ cast, the fact that it is, well, so damn cool.
Obsessed with the images and interviews captured by Lyon in the 1960s of a no-frills bike gang out of Chicago, Nichols marinated in the idea of turning the tough-talking real-life characters into a narrative for years, mulling it over
