A rather unfortunate situation has arisen on the promising drama Jane Got a Gun. The Western drama has a Black List script by Brian Duffield and an outstanding cast that includes Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, and Jude Law, and production was set to begin yesterday with We Need to Talk About Kevin director Lynne Ramsay at the helm. However, it appears that Ramsay has decided to announce her dropping out of the project by simply not showing up to set on what was to be the first day of filming. Hit the jump for more on this supremely disappointing news.

Jane Got a Gun follows good girl Jane (Portman), who runs away from her outlaw husband (Law) and teams up with an old flame (Edgerton) to protect her family. A bit of drama took place last week, when Michael Fassbender was forced to drop out of the project due to filming on X-Men: Days of Future Past being pushed back and conflicting with his Jane dates. Fassbender was set to play the male lead role of Jane’s old flame while Edgerton was signed on to tackle the outlaw husband role, but Edgerton subsequently moved into the part that Fassbender vacated while Law signed on to play the villain.

It seemed like everything was ready to roll, but Deadline reports that Ramsay shockingly failed to show up for the first day of production in Santa Fe, announcing her departure from the film. I found We Need to Talk About Kevin to be one of the best films of 2011, but this sounds like an incredibly unprofessional move on Ramsay’s part. Granted we don’t know the whole story, but it seems like Ramsay could’ve found a better way to depart the film that didn’t involve leaving her crew and actors hanging on a set without a director.

Ramsay has a pay or play deal, which means that she gets paid her director fee whether the film actually gets made or not. Producer Scott Steindorff tells Deadline that he’s committed to keeping the project on track as “directors are flying in and a replacement is imminent.” The crew will continue to show up for work and production isn’t being halted just yet, with the actors simply rehearsing scenes in lieu of a director available to actually roll film. It’s worth noting that Portman is also a producer on the drama, so the actress has quite a bit invested in the production. Hopefully things can get back on track soon, as Jane Got a Gun seems like one of the more promising films currently in development.