Thomas Jane Talks Collaborating With Armie Hammer on FRONTIER CRUCIBLE (Exclusive)
Border Crucible comes to us from the producer of Bone Tomahawk and kicks off with a wagon carrying crucial medical supplies that need to be transported across hostile territory. The only man who can guide him to his destination is Merrick Beckford, but to get there he will have to enlist the help of a trio of dangerous outlaws determined to survive.
However, when they accidentally kill an Apache scout, all bets are off and survival is the name of the game in director Travis Mills’ western thriller.
The cast includes Thomas Jane, William H. Macy, Armie Hammer, Eli Brown, Ryan Masson, Zane Holtz, Eddie Spears and two star turns from newcomers Myles Clohessy and Mary Stickley. You can pre-order Border Crucible now on Apple TV.
It’s no secret that Hammer has been embroiled in various controversies; no criminal charges were ever filed, but he was the subject of several sexual misconduct allegations in 2021 that derailed his acting career. But now, after spending time away from the spotlight to work on himself, The Lone Ranger the star is looking to return to Hollywood.
The actor delivers a superb performance in Border Crucible and has great chemistry with Jane. When we spoke with The Punisher star earlier this week, we asked him about their dynamic on set, and he told us about working with Hammer and why he thinks his co-star deserves the chance to prove himself:
“Armie is amazing. He’s a scholarly artist, very intelligent, educated, creative. He’s a great guy. I had a blast. You know, he’s done a lot of work on himself, and it shows. People either get beaten down by life or they rise to the occasion. And Armie rose to the occasion. He’s a good human being, and I like to see that. We all have challenges. We all have our journey to go, right ?How you do it and what you do with it is what really matters.”
“If I was in trouble, Armie would be one of the guys I could call, and I know he’d be there. When you get beat up, it tends to humble you, and I’ve been through that, and I know it makes us better people.”
“We made cowboy coffee every day. We didn’t have trailers, so we went and got firewood wherever we could, and we built a little pit, and we made cowboy coffee every morning. We tended this fire and the other actors came around. We were filming in the fall, so it was cool at night. This fire became the central fire that we all danced around while we were shooting the movie. That was Armie, you know, one day just to make a fire, and we were in the middle of nowhere We did that every day.
Elsewhere in the interview, Jane talks to us about what attracted him to the western genre, the film’s practical effects, and explains why he doesn’t think he was well cast as Frank Castle in 2004. The Punisher.
Frontier Crucible arrives in theaters and digitally on December 5, 2025.
