Is Ridley Scott’s next film, a western, written by S. Craig Zahler? It sure looks to be the case.
Scott, 86, isn’t stopping. Bless his heart. He has “Napoleon” being released two weeks from now and shot half of his “Gladiator” sequel before the strike halted production on it in July.
Yesterday, Scott mentioned to the New Yorker that he was also location scouting and storyboarding his next film, a western. Thanks to the input of a few readers, we must go back to 2016 which is when this project might have first been announced.
On 05.10.16, a Variety report confirmed that Scott would direct Fox’s movie adaptation of S. Craig Zahler‘s Western novel “Wraiths of the Broken Land,” reteaming with “The Martian” writer Drew Goddard.
“Wraiths of the Broken Land,” published in 2013, is set in Mexico around 1900 with two sisters forced into prostitution at a gentlemen’s club. The sisters’ two brothers and their father attempt to rescue them through their outlaw gang which also includes a former slave, an Indian and a brutal gunman (or “wraith”) who is the tactical leader.
Zahler directed the horror-western “Bone Tomahawk,” from his own script, and two other knuckle-brushing pulp-action films: “Brawl in Cell Block 99” and “Dragged Across Concrete”.
The team-up of Scott and Zahler seems like an odd pairing at first, but it might work. Meanwhile, Goddard adapting Zahler’s work is a good fit — with the already-mention ‘Martian,’ he’s also written “Bad Times at the El Royale” and “Cabin in the Woods”
This could be a very exciting film for Scott and company. I would imagine that he’ll be shooting it right after “Gladiator 2” is completed.