Playwright Martin McDonagh (The Pillowman, A Behanding in Spokane) actively moved into filmmaking with the short Six Shooter in 2005, and then gave Colin Farrell one of his best roles in the bleak comedy In Bruges.

He’s also had the film Seven Psychopaths, and is promoting a new play called Hangman, which gave the writer/director the opportunity to mention an upcoming film project which just brought Frances McDormand into the fold. The movie is called Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and the subject is one that seems like a direct response to escalating clashes between police and civilians in American cities in the last year.

McDonagh describes the script to The Guardian:

It’s about a 50-year-old woman whose daughter is murdered and she goes to war with the police in her home town, because she thinks they are more interested in torturing black people than getting justice.

In fact, the script is not new — McDonagh has been talking about it since at least the promo campaign for Seven Psychopaths, which took place in 2012. So while this new picture seems like it could have been created in response to the violent clashes in Ferguson or Baltimore, it was originally inspired by older tensions — we’ll see if the script has changed in the last year, or if recent events just make it seem even more relevant.

Interestingly, McDonagh seems to have taken some of the criticism of Seven Psychopaths in stride, and commented to The Guardian that the movie is “maybe a bit too meta.” And he continues to talk about working as a film director in part as a way to protect his scripts. McDonagh is a life-long film fan, and always wanted to write movies.

He told The Playlist in 2012,

…the amount of control for a playwright is almost infinite, so you have that control over the finished product. But in film, you’re the lowest form of life. So that was half of the job of directing, was not letting someone else come in and fuck it up. And then the other half is to learn how the hell you actually do it, which is another kettle of fish.

That last comment is interesting given his latest note about Seven Psychopaths — indeed, part of learning the nuts and bolts of directing is learning how not to mess up your own material, or how to enhance it once it moves from the page to screen.

Now he tells The Guardian that even In Bruges, as quick and sharp as that movie ended up being, was a battle.

In Bruges was relentless and exhausting. I had to deal with them [Focus Films, the production company] trying to change anything they could change. And Focus are supposed to be supportive, indie-filmmaker-friendly people. Scumbags. It was constant war, but they never won.

We don’t know what company is behind Three Billboards, but with McDormand on board hopefully we’ll soon hear a lot more about the film.

Film4 and Fox Searchlight Pictures are teaming up for Martin McDonagh's "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri." Last fall, Frances McDormand was said to be starring in the movie, and described the plot. “It’s about a 50-year-old woman, whose daughter is murdered, and she goes to war with the police in her home town because she thinks they are more interested in torturing black people than getting justice,” McDormand explained. And wow, that sounds absolutely intense.

There's no mention of McDormand in the release sent to press, but we'll likely know more soon, as production is gearing up to start in April.

EXCLUSIVE: Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell are joining Frances McDormand for Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Fox Searchlight and Film4 are co-financing the film, believed to be about a woman (McDormand), whose daughter is murdered, who then goes to war with the police in her hometown because she thinks they are not interested in pursuing justice.

Billboards was developed by Film4 at an early stage and will be produced by Blueprint Pictures’ Graham Broadbent and Peter Czernin alongside McDonagh. Filming is set to start in April on location in North Carolina. The film will be co-financed equally by Film4 and Fox Searchlight, which will take worldwide distribution rights. Film4 will retain UK TV rights. CAA and Broadbent brokered the rights deal with Fox Searchlight and David Kosse and Harry Dixon negotiated the co-financing deal on behalf of Film4.

The pic sees McDonagh reunite with Harrelson and Rockwell after the trio worked together on Seven Psychopaths. Given McDonagh’s reputation for smart, sharp dialogue — he wrote and directed the terrific dramedy In Bruges with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson — the timely subject matter and stellar cast, expect this one to get plenty of attention when it comes out the other side. Blueprint also produced In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths.