Now, I’m not saying that the massive hype surrounding Zach Cregger won’t pan out; I was impressed by his direction in “Barbarian,” and that’s despite the weak ending. He’s also shot “Weapons” which has been testing very well and could be released as early as this year.
However, I’m also not ready to call him the second coming of horror, but that’s what the hype surrounding him is all about, and Sony has completely bought into it.
In case you didn’t hear, Cregger is directing a “Resident Evil” reboot, which Sony recently acquired, in a heated bidding war, for a very large sum of money. Word is that Cregger is getting a $20M payday to direct and write “Resident Evil,” plus 20 points on the backend — this is just the 3rd film of his career. Just to compare, Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese have base salaries of around $20M per film.
First thing I thought after learning of Cregger’s big payday: “Weapons” must be very good. There’s almost no way Sony didn’t ask to screen “Weapons” before dishing out all that money for “Resident Evil.” Absolutely no way.
Cregger turned a lot of heads in 2022 when “Barbarian” became a critical and commercial success. All this on a skimp $4.5M budget. Cregger’s previous work included being in a comedy troupe called The Whitest Kids U Know, so, yeah, nobody saw his successful debut coming.
The hype only grew a year later. That’s when Cregger’s “Weapons” script, written on spec, was all the buzz in Hollywood. Warner Bros and New Line won a bidding war that involved multiple other studios, and snatched up the rights to the film for an 8-figure sum.
The way Cregger shopped the “Weapons” script around was rather unusual. Spec script bidding wars tend to occur when an unknown screenwriter makes significant money off the strength of the script alone. It’s not usually something that happens with a filmmaker who is already established, let alone had a recent hit movie. This was a promising indicator of just how good the “Weapons” script actually was.
We’ll see if the Cregger hype pans out. “Weapons,” revolves around “witchcraft and missing children” and is told via multi and inter-related storylines. Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Magnolia,” specifically its structure, was a clear influence. The screenplay, which I’ve read, is very thick — the tested cuts have hovered around the 3 hour mark.