Walton Goggins And Amber Midthunder To Join Cast Of James Cameron-Produced Film Painter

Stars of Django Unchained and Prey are hoping to paint a masterpiece with some help from an acclaimed director and a celebrated writer of action films.

Django’s Walton Goggins and Prey’s Amber Midthunder have reportedly joined the cast of Painter, a new film from executive producer James Cameron, with a story by John Wick’s Derek Kolstad (via THR).

Midthunder plays a young woman with a set of skills she’s been honing since childhood, who must call upon those abilities in order to rescue her kidnapped father, played by Goggins. Reacher star Alan Ritchson was originally set to play the father but scheduling issues forced him to back out.

Painter will be directed by Garrett Warren, a stunt coordinator who previously worked with Cameron on the Avatar franchise. It’s Warren’s first feature film as director, as he follows the trail blazed by Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, stunt coordinators who co-directed John Wick before going their separate ways.

Goggins and Warren have worked on the same set before, both having been involved in Steven Spielberg’s historical biopic Lincoln.

Amber Midthunder's Naru aims a bow and arrow in Prey 2022 — Amber Midthunder’s Naru aims a bow and arrow in Prey 2022

Painter marks the latest in a veritable blizzard of projects from Goggins, who in 2025 has become a ubiquitous TV commercial performer, in addition to starring in the series The Righteous Gemstones and The White Lotus.

Goggins is indeed in danger of becoming over-exposed, at least according to SNL alum Pete Davidson, who had cautionary words for the Justified actor during a recent appearance on the popular This Past Weekend With Theo Von podcast:

Look at Pedro Pascal right now. F—ing two years ago he’s a hardworking, great actor…And then a year later, he’s, like, in everything now ’cause he’s H๏τ and big and everyone’s like, ‘Go the f— away, dude.’

They’re gonna do it with Walton Goggins, [he] will be next. It’s like, we build everybody up and now it’s so fast to turn. It’s within months.

Midthunder is in no such danger of losing her audience (Davidson never brought her up, anyway), even after starring in a pair of big 2025 releases in Novocaine and Opus.

Not on Midthunder’s 2025 slate is the upcoming Predator: Badlands, Dan Trachtenberg’s follow-up to Prey, the very movie in which Midthunder established her action hero status as the Predator-fighting Comanche warrior Naru. Though Prey is credited with reviving the dormant Predator franchise, Trachtenberg elected not to continue that film’s story, despite an ending that seemingly set up a direct sequel.

Trachtenberg may one day get around to following up on Naru in Prey 2, but Midthunder herself doesn’t know when that will happen, as she conveyed in a recent interview (via Collider):

I don’t know what’s happening. [Laughs] I genuinely don’t. I also want to do another one. I would be happy to do another one. I love Dan Trachtenberg with my whole heart. I love that world, I love that character, and I think that there’s some fun ideas out there that I’ve heard that are very cool.

Prey indeed made Midthunder into a new female action hero, and Painter seemingly will help her build upon that reputation, with potential input from the man who previously helped mold Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton into iconic action stars, depending on how much involvement EP Cameron has.

The director of Aliens and Terminator 2 is busy on other projects, of course. Avatar 3 is set to release on December 19, with two more Avatars still in the pipeline; and then there’s Cameron’s other upcoming movie The Devils, a historical thriller based on a book the filmmaker described to Empire as being “off its t—s.”

Painter does not yet have a release date from 20th Century Studios.