By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

ACADEMY AWARD® WINNER MEL GIBSON AND VINCE VAUGHN TO STAR IN S. CRAIG ZAHLER’S “DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE”

Posted Wednesday, February 1st, 2017 - Comments Off on ACADEMY AWARD® WINNER MEL GIBSON AND VINCE VAUGHN TO STAR IN S. CRAIG ZAHLER’S “DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE”
Be Sociable, Share!

LOS ANGELES (February 1, 2017) –– Academy Award® Winner Mel Gibson (Braveheart) and Vince Vaughn (Hacksaw Ridge, Wedding Crashers) will star in Dragged Across Concrete, written and to be directed by S. Craig Zahler (Bone Tomahawk).  The film will mark another production for Keith Kjarval of Unified Pictures and financed by the recently announced Unified Film Fund I slate, which is partnered with Look to the Sky Films. The fund, comprised of Victory Square Labs and its equity partner Fantasy 360 (FYS:CN)(OTC:FNTYF)(6F6.F) along with The Fyzz Facility, was announced at the most recent Cannes. The film will also be produced by Zahler’s frequent collaborators, Dallas Sonnier under his new Cinestate banner, and Jack Heller of Assemble Media. BLOOM will commence international sales on the thriller at the upcoming European Film Market in Berlin, with WME Global representing the U.S. rights.

A stolid, old guard policeman, Ridgeman (Gibson) and his volatile younger partner, Anthony (Vaughn), find themselves suspended when a video of their strong-arming tactics become the media’s special du jour.  Low on cash and with no other options, these two embittered soldiers descend into the criminal underworld to gain their just due, but instead find far more than they wanted awaiting them in the shadows.

 

BLOOM’s Alex Walton said, “Mel and Vince have a truly unique energy and, subsequent to their recent success with Hacksaw Ridge, have formed a dynamic chemistry that will coincide seamlessly with Craig’s vision. Dragged Across Concrete will pave the way for filmmaking, reviving the power of intelligent dialogue combined with electrically charged grit and action.”

 

Zahler added, “Dragged Across Concrete is best suited to my goal of making a heartfelt, surprising, sad, funny, shocking, and memorable world with multiple viewpoints.  As is often the case in my novels and screenplays, the protagonists are in perilous circumstances against which they struggle in different and surprising—though logical—ways.  I am absolutely thrilled to have Mel and Vince agree to play the lead roles.”

 

Gibson and Vaughn most recently collaborated on the critically acclaimed and lauded war drama Hacksaw Ridge, which Gibson directed. The film received six Academy Award nominations including best picture and best director for Gibson.  Other accolades,Hacksaw Ridge won the AFI Movie of the Year Award, swept the 2017 Australian Film Academy’s prizes and earned three Golden Globe and two SAG nominations.

 

Zahler is currently in post-production on Brawl in Cell Block 99 which also stars Vaughn alongside Jennifer Carpenter and Don Johnson. He previously wrote and directed Indie Spirit Award nominated western Bone Tomahawk, starring Kurt Russell and Patrick Wilson.

 

Zahler is represented by UTA, Cinestate and Ziffren Brittenham LLP.  Gibson is represented by CAA and attorney Tom Hansen, and Vaughn by WME and attorney Deborah Klein.

 

BLOOM’s diversified slate includes: Josh Trank’s Fonzo starring Tom Hardy; Scott Cooper’s Hostilesstarring Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike; Martin Zandvliet’s The Outsider starring Jared Leto; Federico D’ Alessandro’s Tau starring Maika Monroe and Ed Skrein; Paul Weitz’s Bel Canto starring Julianne Moore and Ken Watanabe; Danny Strong’s Rebel in the Rye starring Nicholas Hoult; George Clooney’sSuburbicon starring Matt Damon and Julianne Moore; and Kate and Laura Mulleavy’s Woodshock starring Kirsten Dunst.

 

 

About BLOOM

BLOOM is a sales, production and financing outfit. The company represents and curates a diversified slate of films ranging from commercial, talent-driven, wide release movies, to specialty films from proven andtrusted filmmakers, all the while keeping an eye towards fresh and emerging talent.

 

About UNIFIED PICTURES

Unified Pictures is a Los Angeles-based production company that develops, finances and produces independent motion pictures including live-action and animated films.

 

Founded in 2004 by Keith Kjarval and Kurt Rauer, Unified has produced over twenty feature-length films and has rapidly become a dynamic force in the motion picture industry.  Titles include David Lynch’s INLAND EMPIRE, David M. Rosenthal’s A SINGLE SHOT, Clark Gregg’s TRUST ME, George Tillman Jr.’s THE INEVITABLE DEFEAT OF MISTER AND PETE, Zachary Sluser’s THE DRIFTLESS AREA, and William H. Macy’s directorial debut, RUDDERLESS.

 

Most recently, Unified premiered VINCENT N ROXXY at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.  The film was written and directed by Gary Michael Schultz and stars Emile Hirsch, Zoë Kravitz, Emory Cohen, and Zoey Deutch.  They are currently in post-production on William H. Macy’s THE LAYOVER which stars Kate Upton and Alexandra Daddario.  The animation division is in production on THE ARK AND THE AARDVARK, which stars Miles Teller and will tell the story of Noah’s Ark from the perspective of the animals.  The film is being directed by Academy Award nominee John Stevenson (KUNG FU PANDA, SHREK) and executive produced by Cecil Kramer (WALLACE & GROMMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT, Oscar winner).

 

About CINESTATE

Cinestate is a Dallas-based entertainment company founded by film producer Dallas Sonnier (Bone Tomahawk) and publisher Will Evans (Deep Vellum Publishing) that seeks to improve upon the status quo in three key ways: cultivating mutually beneficial relationships with visionary creators who want to see their projects made faithfully and distributed widely; eliminating the arbitrary separation between the mediums of books and film; and minimizing unnecessary production costs while fiercely protecting our creators’ work. Cinestate believes a bold, authentic story can and will flourish in a book, film or audio narrative, as long as you have the right people in-house to guide the process. (We do.) If you would like to get more information about Cinestate or its current projects in film, books or audio, visit www.cinestate.com or follow us – @cinestatement.

Be Sociable, Share!

Posted in Movie City News, Press Releases | Comments Off on ACADEMY AWARD® WINNER MEL GIBSON AND VINCE VAUGHN TO STAR IN S. CRAIG ZAHLER’S “DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE”

Comments are closed.

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon