Juliette Lewis Transforms Into a Hardened Outlaw with Peter Dinklage in The Thicket Trailer (Exclusive)

Juliette Lewis and Peter Dinklage have a cold-blooded face-off in a new Western film.

PEOPLE has the exclusive first trailer for The Thicket, which also stars Levon Hawke (son of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke), Esme Creed-Miles, James Hetfield (Metallica's lead singer), Macon Blair and Andrew Schulz. 

The film, based on the 2013 novel by Joe R. Lansdale, is directed by Elliott Lester.

In the turn-of-the-century drama, Lewis plays Cut Throat Bill, a "violent killer" whose gang kidnaps the sister of an "innocent young man" named Jack, played by Hawke.

"To save her, Jack enlists the help of a crafty bounty hunter named Reginald Jones (Dinklage), a grave-digging alcoholic son of an ex-slave and a street-smart prostitute," adds the synopsis. "The gang tracks Cut Throat Bill into the deadly no-man's land known as the Thicket — a place where blood and chaos reign."

Oscar-nominee Lewis, 51, tells PEOPLE that Cut Throat Bill is "one of my most favorite characters I’ve ever played."

"She’s seemingly indestructible and has endured brutality and extreme violence," says Lewis, "but the key to the character for me was her voice, which came instantly when I first read the script. It shows her mangled resilience, deep and gravely."

"Part of the fun of how I do my job is that you can’t always explain the 'how' or 'where' these things come from. It’s like channeling for me," she says.

Lewis describes the film as a "punk-rock Western" in which "every single person jumps off the screen."

The project was also meaningful as a connection to her late father, actor Geoffrey Lewis, known for many Western roles. "Everything about filling this role reminded me of my father‘s legacy as a villain in one of the greatest Westerns, High Plains Drifter. I pick up where he left off."

Dinklage, 55, who is also a producer, says The Thicket is "definitely a passion project of many years in the making for me."

"The characters of Joe Lansdale’s book sprang off the page in such a cinematic way we had to see it through to the screen adaptation it eventually became," he says.

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"The Western genre is such a classic form of settlement in a land without proper laws in place yet. A new beginning to a life on an unknown frontier," says the Game of Thrones alum.

"The Thicket captures that in the way Joseph Conrad did with Heart of Darkness. What’s down that unknown path? What are the consequences of that journey? And how will you ever return to anything you thought you once were?"

"Fun stuff as storytellers," says Dinklage.

The Thicket is in theaters Sept. 6.