If you’re wondering what’s going on with S. Craig Zahler, who hasn’t directed a film in seven years, well, he’s supposed to shoot his long-delayed “The Bookie and the Bruiser” sometime next year — hopefully, it actually happens.
In the meantime, Zahler has sold a script titled “Empire City,” and a cast has been assembled, including Hayley Atwell (“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning”) and Gerard Butler (“300”). Production is set to kick off later this month.
The project, first reported by Deadline, has “Love and Monsters” director Michael Matthews aboard to helm. Zahler isn’t directing this one, and in fact, there might have been some tweaks done by Bryan Tucker to his script.
Set against the backdrop of a high-stakes hostage situation inside New York’s iconic Clybourn Building, the film follows firefighter Rhett (Butler) and his NYPD officer wife Dani (Atwell) as they battle their way through chaos and danger to save innocent lives trapped inside.
As for “The Bookie and the Bruiser,” Zahler was slated to reunite with his “Dragged Across Concrete” and “Brawl in Cell Block 99” star Vince Vaughn, along with two-time Oscar winner Adrien Brody (“The Brutalist”). Brody’s involvement appears to be the sticking point — he recently won an Oscar and is carefully considering his next project. I’m told Brody remains committed to the film.
Zahler is 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 unfolds in unbearably excruciating fashion.
The prospect of a new Zahler film arriving in 2025 was supposed to be great news, as he remains one of the more compelling cinematic voices to emerge over the past decade. Zahler’s three films as a director — “Bone Tomahawk,” “Brawl in Cell Block 99,” and especially “Dragged Across Concrete” — speak for themselves.
For now, we’ll have to do with “Empire City.”