S. Craig Zahler

Steven Craig Zahler (born January 23, 1973) is an American film director, screenwriter, cinematographer, novelist, comic book artist, animator and musician.

In 2004, he wrote six scripts, including a western that topped the Black List entitled, The Brigands of Rattleborge, which Park Chan-wook was set to direct.

Zahler told Variety that on June 22, 2006, he began his career at NYU film school as a cinematographer.

On September 7, 2007, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Warner Bros. had acquired the film rights to the anime Robotech with Tobey Maguire attached to star in and produce the film, while Zahler was set to write the script.

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.

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.

Michael Mann was reported to be directing in February 2012.

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.

After beginning his career working briefly as a cinematographer, Zahler focused on screenwriting until he made his directorial debut with Bone Tomahawk (2015).

In 2015, Zahler made his directorial debut, writing and directing the horror western Bone Tomahawk, which stars Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Lili Simmons, David Arquette and Richard Jenkins.

The film was released on October 23, 2015, in theaters and on video on demand.

Bone Tomahawk was met with favorable reception, winning a few awards.

At Rotten Tomatoes it has received positive reviews from 90% of critics.

The New York Times called it "[a] witty fusion of western, horror and comedy that gallops to its own beat", while the LA Times said "There's a humming genre intelligence at work in the grim, witty horror-western Bone Tomahawk."

The Hollywood Reporter called it "[a] handsome Western with horror overtones", and Variety described it as "...a most violent delight", while Leonard Maltin said "[T]his modest feature leaves The Hateful Eight in the dust. It's provocative, original, extremely violent and extremely good."

Twitch Film said "[Bone Tomahawk] succeeds in demonstrating the voice of its massively talented creator."

At the Sitges Film Festival Bone 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.

Zahler's second feature film as writer, director, and co-composer was Brawl in Cell Block 99, which stars Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Carpenter, Udo Kier, and Don Johnson.

In July 2016, Pierre Morel was announced to be replacing Mann as director.

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.

Zahler was born in Miami, Florida, to a Jewish family.

Zahler studied film at New York University.

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.

Corpus Chrome, Inc., A Congregation of Jackals and Mean Business on North Ganson Street all received starred reviews for excellence in Booklist.

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.

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.

This movie received its world premiere at the 74th Venice Film Festival in 2017.

Actors Fred Melamed and Geno Segers both returned from his debut, and were joined by Marc Blucas, Mustafa Shakir, Thomas Guiry, Willie C. Carpenter, and others.

The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92% based on 75 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Brawl in Cell Block 99 rides a committed Vince Vaughn performance into the brutally violent – and undeniably entertaining – depths of prison-set grindhouse genre fare."

The movie made year end best of lists for Newsweek, (Justin Chang) L.A. Times, Collider, JoBlo.com, (Mike D'Angelo) The A.V. Club, and others.

The picture was a New York Times Critics Pick and was screened at the Museum of Modern Art, where it was added to the permanent collection.

Zahler's third feature film as writer, director, and co-composer was Dragged Across Concrete, which stars Mel Gibson, Vince Vaughn, Tory Kittles, Michael Jai White, Jennifer Carpenter, Thomas Kretschmann, Laurie Holden, Fred Melamed, Udo Kier, and Don Johnson.

This movie received its world premiere at the 75th Venice Film Festival in 2018.

In 2018, it was announced that Zahler would be joining the writing staff of the resurrected Fangoria magazine.

As of 2019, he writes a column called "Malignant Growths" about microbudget horror films.