Meeks Cutoff is a 2010 English-language Drama Western film written by Jonathan Raymond and directed by Kelly Reichardt and produced by Elizabeth Cuthrell, Neil Kopp, Anish Savjani and David Urrutia under the banner of Evenstar Films in collaboration with Film Science, Harmony Productions and Primitive Nerd. The year is 1845, the earliest days of the Oregon Trail, and a wagon team of three families has hired the mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. Claiming to know a short cut, Meek leads the group on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, only to become lost in the dry rock and sage. Over the coming days, the emigrants must face the scourges of hunger, thirst and their own lack of faith in each other's instincts for survival. When a Native American wanderer crosses their path, the emigrants are torn between their trust in a guide who has proven himself unreliable and a man who has always been n as the natural enemy. Written by Oscilloscope. Meeks cutoff stars Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Bruce Greenwood, Shirley Henderson, Neal Huff, Zoe Kazan and Rod Rondeaux. The music was composed by Jeff Grace. Cinematography was done by Chris Blauvelt and editing by Kelly Reichardt. The motion picture has a running time of 104 minutes. It was released on 15th April 2011. Meeks Cutoff was made on a budget of $2 million and at the box office it grossed only $1 million. Distribution rights for the motion picture were acquired by Oscilloscope Laboratories.