Steven Craig Zahler (born January 23, 1973) is an American screenwriter, film director, novelist, and composer. After beginning his career working briefly as a cinematographer, Zahler focused on screenwriting until he made his directorial debut with Bone Tomahawk (2015). He followed this up with Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017) and Dragged Across Concrete (2018), all of which he wrote and composed the music for. He has also authored several novels.
His debut noir western novel, A Congregation of Jackals, was nominated for The Spur Award by the Western Writers of America and The Peacemaker Award by the Western Fictioneers.[3]Corpus Chrome, Inc., A Congregation of Jackals and Mean Business on North Ganson Street all received starred reviews for excellence in Booklist.[4]
As a drummer, lyricist and singer, Zahler, under the stage name Czar, collaborates with Jeff Herriott, as JH Halberd, to write and perform songs as the heavy metal band Realmbuilder, who have three albums on Swedish label I Hate Records.[5] This is following Zahler's foray into black metal with the project Charnel Valley, for which he played drums, wrote lyrics and shared songwriting duties with Worm. The two Charnel Valley albums were released by Paragon Records.[6]
Zahler also wrote the script for a 2011 horror film Asylum Blackout (also released as The Incident at Sans Asylum and The Incident), which was directed by Alexandre Courtès.[7]
Bone Tomahawk was met with favorable reception, winning a few awards. At Rotten Tomatoes it has received positive reviews from 90% of critics.[9] The New York Times called it "[a] witty fusion of western, horror and comedy that gallops to its own beat",[10] while the LA Times said "There's a humming genre intelligence at work in the grim, witty horror-western Bone Tomahawk."[11]The Hollywood Reporter called it "[a] handsome Western with horror overtones",[12] and Variety described it as "...a most violent delight",[13] while Leonard Maltin said "[T]his modest feature leaves The Hateful Eight in the dust. It's provocative, original, extremely violent and extremely good."[14]Twitch Film said "[Bone Tomahawk] succeeds in demonstrating the voice of its massively talented creator."[15] At the Sitges Film FestivalBone Tomahawk won the critic's award for "Best Picture", and Zahler was given the award for "Best Director". The Independent Spirit Awards nominated Richard Jenkins for "Best Supporting Actor" and S. Craig Zahler for "Best Screenplay". Kurt Russell won the "Best Actor" award at the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards.[citation needed]
In 2018, it was announced that Zahler would be joining the writing staff of the resurrected Fangoria magazine.[26] As of 2019, he writes a column called "Malignant Growths" about microbudget horror films.
Film projects
Zahler told Variety that on June 22, 2006, he began his career at NYU film school as a cinematographer.[27] In 2004, he wrote six scripts, including a western that topped the Black List entitled, The Brigands of Rattleborge,[27] which Park Chan-wook was set to direct.[28]
On March 25, 2011, Sony's Columbia Pictures picked up the script of the film The Big Stone Grid, written by Zahler and produced by Michael De Luca.[30]Michael Mann was reported to be directing in February 2012.[31] In July 2016, Pierre Morel was announced to be replacing Mann as director.[32]
On September 5, 2012, it was announced that FX was developing a martial arts drama, Downtown Dragons, with Zahler set to write and executive produce.[33]
On October 30, 2012, Zahler was set to make his directorial debut with a horror western film Bone Tomahawk from his own script. Two years later, the picture went into production in California. The film stars Kurt Russell and Richard Jenkins.[34]
In 2015, Zahler told Creative Screenwriting, "I've had maybe a minimum of 21 different screenplays optioned or sold, and not one of them was made in Hollywood. I had one [The Incident] made by a French company in Belgium, but the other 20 or more – and some of those have been optioned multiple times, I had a television series that was at FX that went to Starz that went to AMC – none of them have been made."[36]
On May 10, 2016, 20th Century Fox acquired the film rights to Zahler's western novel Wraiths of the Broken Land. The screenplay was to be written by Drew Goddard and the film directed by Ridley Scott.[37]
In May 2024, Variety confirmed that Zahler would write and direct The Bookie & the Bruiser, with Vince Vaughn and Adrien Brody set to star.[41]
Personal life
Although he was raised Jewish, Zahler is an atheist. Zahler has stated that he is "not politically driven; I'm not very politically interested",[42] believing in the philosophy of "art over politics."[1]
Zahler is unmarried, stating that he has no interest in ever marrying.[43]
As a metal musician, Zahler is better known by his stage name Czar. As a soundtrack composer and as one half of the synthesizer duo Binary Reptile, he uses his real name.
Jailhouse Rock is a 1957 American musical drama film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Elvis Presley, Judy Tyler, Mickey Shaughnessy, Vaughn Taylor and Jennifer Holden. Adapted by Guy Trosper from a story written by Nedrick Young, the film tells the story of Vince Everett (Presley), a convict who learns the guitar while in prison and later becomes a star following his release.
Lethal Weapon is a 1987 American buddy cop action film directed and co-produced by Richard Donner, written by Shane Black, and co-produced by Joel Silver. It stars Mel Gibson and Danny Glover alongside Gary Busey, Tom Atkins, Darlene Love, and Mitchell Ryan.
Swingers is a 1996 American buddy comedy film about the lives of single, unemployed actors living on the 'eastside' of Hollywood, California, during the 1990s swing revival. Written by Jon Favreau and directed by Doug Liman, the film starred Favreau alongside Vince Vaughn, featuring performances by Ron Livingston and Heather Graham.
Vincent Anthony Vaughn is an American actor and producer. He began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before attaining wider recognition with the 1996 comedy Swingers. Vaughn then appeared in the sci-fi action movie The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), the dramas The Locusts (1997) and Return to Paradise (1998), the Western South of Heaven, West of Hell (2000), and the thriller Domestic Disturbance (2001). He starred as Frank Semyon in the second season of the HBO anthology crime drama television series True Detective (2015).
Wedding Crashers is a 2005 American romantic comedy film directed by David Dobkin, written by Steve Faber and Bob Fisher, starring Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Christopher Walken with Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher, Bradley Cooper and Jane Seymour in supporting roles. The film follows two divorce mediators who crash weddings in an attempt to meet and seduce women.
Psycho is a 1998 American psychological horror film produced and directed by Gus Van Sant, and starring Vince Vaughn, Julianne Moore, Viggo Mortensen, William H. Macy, and Anne Heche. It is a modern remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film of the same name, in which an embezzler arrives at an old motel run by a mysterious man named Norman Bates; both films are adapted from Robert Bloch's 1959 novel.
The Dilemma is a 2011 American comedy-drama film directed by Ron Howard, written by Allan Loeb and starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James. The film follows savvy businessman Ronny (Vaughn) and genius engineer Nick (James), who are best friends and partners in an auto design firm. They are pursuing a project to make their firm famous. Ronny sees Nick's wife Geneva kissing another man. Ronny seeks out answers and has to figure out how to tell Nick about what he saw while working with him to complete their critical presentation.
Mel Gibson is an American actor, director, and producer, who made his acting debut on the Australian television drama series The Sullivans (1976–1983). While a student at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, he was given an uncredited role in I Never Promised You a Rose Garden and subsequently appeared as a leading actor in the micro budget surf drama Summer City. Gibson rose to prominence during the Australian New Wave cinema movement in the early 1980s, having appeared in his breakthrough role in George Miller's dystopian action film Mad Max (1979), portraying the eponymous hero. He reprised the role in its sequels, Mad Max 2 (1981) and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). He appeared in Peter Weir's war drama Gallipoli (1981) and the romantic drama The Year of Living Dangerously (1982). Five years later he played Martin Riggs in the buddy cop action comedy Lethal Weapon alongside Danny Glover—a role he later reprised in its sequels Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), Lethal Weapon 3 (1992), and Lethal Weapon 4 (1998).
Bone Tomahawk is a 2015 American Western horror film written and directed by S. Craig Zahler in his directorial debut, and starring Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, Lili Simmons, Evan Jonigkeit, David Arquette, Zahn McClarnon and Sid Haig. It was produced by Jack Heller and Dallas Sonnier. The film is about a small-town sheriff who leads a posse into a desolate region to rescue three people who were abducted by a cannibalistic Native American clan.
Hacksaw Ridge is a 2016 biographical war film directed by Mel Gibson and written by Andrew Knight and Robert Schenkkan, based on the 2004 documentary The Conscientious Objector directed by Terry Benedict.
Ben O'Toole is an Australian actor. He is known for his role as Rex Coen in Bloody Hell, his recurring roles in several Australian TV series such as Amazing Grace, as well as for his supporting roles in films such as Hacksaw Ridge (2016) and 12 Strong (2018).
Brawl in Cell Block 99 is a 2017 American neo-noir prison action thriller film directed and written by S. Craig Zahler and starring Vince Vaughn with Jennifer Carpenter, Don Johnson, Udo Kier, Marc Blucas, and Tom Guiry. The story follows Bradley Thomas, a drug mule who must kill a man held in a maximum security prison to rescue his pregnant wife from a vengeful drug lord.
Dragged Across Concrete is a 2018 American neo-noir crime thriller film written and directed by S. Craig Zahler. It stars an ensemble cast that includes Mel Gibson, Vince Vaughn, Tory Kittles, Michael Jai White, Jennifer Carpenter, Laurie Holden, Fred Melamed, Udo Kier, Thomas Kretschmann, and Don Johnson. The story follows two childhood friends and two police detectives who are suspended for police brutality who in a desperate need for money, are embroiled in a robbery done by a professional thief.
Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich is a 2018 American horror comedy film directed by Sonny Laguna and Tommy Wiklund, and written by S. Craig Zahler. The film is the thirteenth entry in the Puppet Master franchise, and is the first film produced by Fangoria under their "Fangoria Presents" label, following their acquisition by Cinestate. It is a reboot of the series, and stars Thomas Lennon, Jenny Pellicer, Nelson Franklin, Barbara Crampton, and Udo Kier. It was released on August 17, 2018, by RLJE Films. As of February 2019, the film has grossed over $600,000 through video sales.
The Charnel House is a 2016 American supernatural horror thriller film directed by Craig Moss and written by Chad Israel and Emanuel Isler. The film stars Callum Blue, Nadine Velazquez, Makenzie Moss, and Erik LaRay Harvey. It was released in theaters and on digital platforms on November 4, 2016, by Freestyle Releasing.
Cinestate was a Dallas-based movie studio founded in 2016 by Dallas Sonnier. The company produced ten films under a variety of production labels, in addition to retroactively claiming the 2014 film Bone Tomahawk, produced independently by Sonnier, as a Cinestate movie. In 2017, the company acquired Fangoria magazine, relaunching it in 2018 as a print-only collectible under the editorial oversight of Phil Nobile Jr. In 2019, the company announced the launch of Rebeller Media, an action label that would have encompassed a production company and lifestyle website to be managed by Washington Free Beacon journalist Sonny Bunch. In 2020, following the arrest of producer Adam Donaghey for sexual assault and a Daily Beast article alleging misconduct on Cinestate sets, Rebeller was shut down and Fangoria sold, all Cinestate social media and websites went dormant, the company was closed and its entire staff laid off.
Joseph Albert "Dallas" Sonnier IV is an American film producer, publisher and entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder of Cinestate and, from 2018 to 2020, the publisher of Fangoria magazine. He has producing credits on the films Bone Tomahawk (2015), Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017), The Standoff at Sparrow Creek (2018) and Dragged Across Concrete (2019), among others. In 2018, he purchased the rights to Fangoria and relaunched the defunct magazine as a print-only publication; he additionally expanded the Fangoria brand to encompass a publishing and film production company.
Hug Chickenpenny: The Panegyric of an Anomalous Child is a 2018 American gothic horror novel written by S. Craig Zahler. Published by Cinestate as the inaugural entry in their publishing imprint, the novel follows the life of the titular protagonist, an orphan child born with several deformities.
Freaky is a 2020 American slasher comedy film directed by Christopher Landon, from a screenplay by Michael Kennedy and Landon, and starring Vince Vaughn, Kathryn Newton, Katie Finneran, Celeste O'Connor, and Alan Ruck. A twist on Freaky Friday, the film centers on a teenage girl who unintentionally switches bodies with a middle-aged male serial killer. Jason Blum serves as a producer under his Blumhouse Productions banner.
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