His current feature, Brawl In Cell Block 99, now in post, writer/director S. Craig Zahler already has his next cinematic offering lined up. is reporting that his crime thriller Dragged Across Concrete is currently having its international distribution rights being shopped around the Berlin Film Market. Not only that, but it has none other than Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn attached to star.
Per Deadline…
The pair [will] play police partners, one from the old guard and the other younger and volatile. The duo is suspended when a video of them strong-arming a suspect leaks to the media. They are then thrust into the criminal underworld. Meanwhile, an ex-con and his childhood friend are introduced to a ruthless crime boss whose plans put the pair in direct conflict with the renegade cops.
With that acting pair and the writer/director of Bone Tomahawk at the wheel, this has already become a project to keep eye. Vaughn and Gibson just worked together on the critically-acclaimed Hacksaw Ridge. Furthermore, Vaughn is actually the star of Zahler’s aforementioned sophomore effort, Brawl In Cell Block 99. The author-turned-filmmaker is actually a bit of a hot commodity in the industry right now, with various different projects set up all over town. Zahler is reportedly penning the next installment in Charles Band’s Puppet Master franchise, plus noted director Ridley Scott is aiming to shoot an adaptation of Zahler’s western Wraiths of the Broken Land later this year. On top of these, he has an adaptation of his novel Mean Business On North Ganson Street set up over at Warner Bros., with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx attached to star.
This is merely the latest project for Mel Gibson. Hot off the awards circuit, the actor already has one film in post (The Professor and the Madman), is about to sign on to another (Daddy’s Home 2), and heavily rumored for a third (Deadpool 2). Gibson is clearly making the most of his comeback train and certainly not resting on his laurels as he figures out what to tackle next as a director. Will it be his long-delayed Viking film, Berserker? Perhaps his Biblical epic about the Maccabees? Or maybe the oft-mentioned follow-up to The Passion of Christ? Whatever he decides upon, we’ll be getting loads of him in front of the camera before then.
