It’s been six years since “Dragged Across Concrete,” but S. Craig Zahler is ready for more bruising cinema. We’re just going to have to wait a little longer than expected before we get to see it.
Earlier in the year, “The Bookie & the Bruiser” was announced as Zahler’s next film. The filmmaker is set to reunite with his “Dragged Across Concrete” and “Brawl in Cell Block 99” star, Vince Vaughn and Oscar winner, Adrien Brody (“The Pianist”). The trades had this one shooting in the fall.
In an interview with Collider, Vaughn is saying that the film has been slightly delayed and will now be shot in early 2025. This is most likely due to the sudden surge of Brody in the awards race — his Oscar-caliber performance in “The Brutalist” is a cinch to be nominated. I expect Brody to continue campaigning until February/March — he’ll probably only start shooting Zahler’s film in March/April.
“The Bookie & The Bruiser” is set in 1959 New York, and follows a pensive, Jewish fellow named Rivner and an oversized Italian-American tough guy named Boscolo from the Lower East Side, both of whom served overseas during WWII and returned changed men. They end up partnering with a bookmaker and an enforcer and create an illicit gambling operation that proves very profitable, though risky, and their situation gets rather sticky when they find themselves stuck between a powerful Irish gang and the Mafia.
Zahler’s very much what one might call a methodical filmmaker, depicting the madness of morally tortured men in uncomfortably precise ways. His dialogue tends to pack a satisfying snap and the action almost always plays out in unbearably excruciating fashion.
The thought of a new Zahler coming out in 2025 is great news as the filmmaker is one of the more interesting cinematic voices to have emerged the last decade. Zahler’s three films as a director, “Bone Tomahawk”, “Brawl In Cell Block 99,” and, especially, “Dragged Across Concrete,” speak for themselves.
Netflix and Skydance Animation have also called it quits. The two sides announced Monday that they're ending the animated film deal struck back in 2023, framing it as a mutual decision.