How good is this “Weapons” screenplay penned by Zach Cregger? I mean, seriously, what are we to expect here, the second coming of cinema?
Deadline is reporting that the script sold for a whopping, never-before-seen, $38 million to New Line/Warner Bros.
Days after a feverish auction wrapped up for Weapons, the town is still talking about the wake left in its path. […] the deal for the Zach Cregger-directed horror film is remarkable in that this is only Cregger’s second film — after the highly profitable debut Barbarian — and it sold to New Line for an overall sum around $38 million, including the budget and Cregger getting $5 million to direct, and $10 million total.
That’s the astonishing part of this whole story, “Weapons” is only set to be Cregger’s second film as a director. Before “Barbarian,” he was mostly known for his comedy sketch improv group “The Whitest Kids U Know.”
What’s even crazier is that multiple studios were after Cregger’s screenplay; the second closest to winning out the bidding war was a team-up of Universal and Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw productions. In fact, as Deadline reports, after losing out the auction, Peele fired both his managers. Someone’s pissed.
There’s been real mystery surrounding Cregger’s “Weapons” screenplay. I had the exclusive yesterday that the film is said to revolve around “witchcraft and missing children” and will be told via multi and inter-related stories. The screenplay is said to be very thick and could result in a 3 hour movie.
Obviously, Warner Bros and New Line are very confident about this one. They won a bidding war that involved multiple other studios and snatched it up for a ridiculously high sum. Buzz for this one is deafening.
For Schrader, AI solves the curious practical filmmaking problem he had. How about just creating Black people? No casting calls, no agents, no actors turning down the roles.