S. Craig Zahler is one of the great new cinematic voices of the last decade. He hasn’t even gotten his due from critics either.
Is it because of the film media constantly wondering what his political affiliations are? Does anyone outside of their bubble actually give a s**t? Of course not. That hasn’t stopped The Daily Beast from proclaiming him “the filmmaker making movies for the MAGA crowd.” What?!
“Bone Tomahawk”, “Brawl In Cell Block 99,” and especially “Dragged Across Concrete” should speak for themselves. These are singular works from a singular cinematic voice. Zahler’s very much what one might qualify as a methodical filmmaker, depicting the madness of morally tortured men. His dialogue packs a satisfying snap and the action almost always plays out in unbearably excruciating fashion.
It thus saddens me to hear that what was supposed to be his next project, “Hug Chickenpenny,” has been scrapped because they just couldn’t amass enough cash in pre-production:
“I had a fantastic cast for that picture and the Jim Henson company involved, but could not get proper financing and now have several other movies and a show that are more likely to be my next directorial effort.”
Such a shame. Zahler’s films don’t get made with terribly high budgets, maybe this one was the exception, but it is depressing to think that a filmmaker like him can’t find the necessary funding to bankroll his vision on-screen.
It’s been more than three years since “Dragged Across Concrete,” and I was very much looking forward to ‘Chickenpenny”, which was said to be an Elephant Man-style puppet movie based on his own book, titled “Hug Chickenpenny: The Panegyric of an Anomalous Child.”
The film was said to be an orphan's tale. Zahler had described it as “a little bit ‘Elephant Man', and a little bit ‘Eraserhead.’” Its main protagonist will be an animatronic puppet. The film was also going to be three hours long, shot in black-and-white and Dickensian in nature.
Now Zahler moves on to whatever his next project might be. I bet he stays in the pulp-action realm. Maybe he hires friends like Mel Gibson, Kurt Russell or even Vince Vaughn to star. We’ll be on the lookout for updates.
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