Vince Vaughn, Adrien Brody to Lead ‘The Bookie & the Bruiser,’ Anton Launching S. Craig Zahler’s Gangster Thriller in Cannes (EXCLUSIVE)
Writer-director S. Craig Zahler (“Bone Tomahawk”) is set to reunite with his “Dragged Across Concrete” and “Brawl in Cell Block 99” star Vince Vaughn and Oscar winner Adrien Brody (“The Pianist”) for upcoming crime thriller “The Bookie & the Bruiser.”
Anton will introduce the film to international distributors at the upcoming Marche du Film in Cannes. UTA Independent Film Group and Range Media Partners arranged the financing and will be representing the North American distribution rights.
More from Variety
Vince Vaughn Talks Super Bowl Ad Debut With 'Funny' Tom Brady
Adrien Brody on Winning the Oscar, Catching a Train with Wes Anderson, and Making Music With Popcorn
Set in 1959 New York, “The Bookie & the Bruiser” follows a pensive, Jewish fellow named Rivner and an oversized Italian-American tough named Boscolo from the Lower East Side, both of whom served overseas during WWII and returned changed men who no longer fit inside the lives they’d left behind. Uninterested in taking orders from bosses or playing by the rules of polite society, the two friends partner up as a bookmaker and an enforcer and create an illicit gambling operation that proves to be very profitable, though risky, and their situation gets rather sticky when they find themselves stuck between a powerful Irish gang and the Mafia. The film is currently in pre-production and is planned for a fall 2024 shoot.
Anthony Katagas — an Oscar winner for “12 Years a Slave” and one of the most prolific producers in U.S. indie film having worked across titles including “Lost City of Z,” “Ad Astra,” “Uncut Gems” and “Armageddon Time” — will produce via his Keep Your Head Productions alongside Dave Caplan. C2 Motion Picture Group is fully financing the project.
“We are thrilled to be working with the visionary S. Craig Zahler on this action-packed tale of a searing conflict between the Irish-American and Italian Mafias in New York and see Vince and Adrien team up in this very unique power charged film,” said Anton CEO Sébastien Raybaud.
“I’m honored and humbled to be working with one of my favorite filmmakers,” added Caplan. “A S. Craig Zahler gangster movie is something I’m dying to watch.”
Anton’s current film slate includes Claude Barras’ animated feature “Savages,” set to world premiere in Cannes’ official selection, and “Memoir of a Snail,” a stop motion animation from Oscar winning writer-director Adam Elliott (“Mary & Max”), which will make its market debut in Cannes ahead of a world premiere at the Annecy Film Festival. Anton will also debut an exclusive preview of 40 minutes of footage from “Night of the Zoopocalypse,” a CGI animated feature from from the studios behind “Despicable Me,” “Ice Age: Collision Course” and “Paw Patrol.” Other Anton titles include the heist thriller “Fuze” from the director David Mackenzie, starring Aaron Taylor Johnson as well as Martin Campbell’s “Cleaner,” starring Daisy Ridley, Clive Owen and Taz Skylar.
C2 Motion Picture Group recently co-financed a number of high-profile Paramount films including “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning,” “Transformers Rise Of The Beasts,” “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” and “Babylon.” C2 also financed and produced the highly anticipated “Longlegs,” which Neon is releasing this summer, “In The Grey” with Lionsgate and Black Bear, “Goodrich” with Ketchup Entertainment, “The End We Start From” with Anton and Republic Pictures and “Azrael” with Republic Pictures. C2 is currently in post-production on Stephen King’s “The Monkey| with Range Media Partners and Atomic Monster producing.
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
