Here’s a director / actor pairing we’re not sure we’d have guessed at: David Gordon Green has hooked up with Nicolas Cage for his next film, a gritty southern US-set drama called Joe.

From the sounds of it, it’s another shift in gear for the director who has most recently been making comedies such as Your Highness and The Sitter.

Adapted from Larry Brown’s novel by screenwriter Gary Hawkins, the movie will unspool the story of ex-con Joe (Cage) who becomes something of a role model to teenager Gary Jones. Gary is trying to escape his drunken, dangerous father and homeless family, and Joe just might be his path to a better life in one of the dodgier corners of Mississippi.

"When Larry Brown wrote the novel, he instantly created an iconic character of contemporary Southern literature," Gordon Green says in a statement picked up by the Hollywood Reporter. "It is with great excitement that I've been able to work with Nicolas Cage to design an absolute and unexpected performance piece that is woven from the darkness, beauty, humour and environment of this material."

The film will likely have to wait until Green is finished horror remake Suspiria. He’s also been busy editing offbeat comedy Prince Avalanche, which stars Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch.