Film projects[edit]

Zahler told Variety that on June 22, 2006, he began his career at NYU film school as a cinematographer.[26] In 2004, he wrote six scripts,
including a western that topped the prestigious Black List entitled, The Brigands of Rattleborge,[26] which Park Chan-wook was set to
direct.[27]
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. [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.[29]
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.[30]
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.[31]
On June 27, 2013, Warner Bros. acquired the film rights to his crime novel Mean Business on North Ganson Street. He will write the
script of the film which is set to star Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx.[32]
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."[33]
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.[34]
On February 1, 2017, Variety confirmed that Zahler would direct Dragged Across Concrete, a film about police brutality. The film
stars Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn, who previously worked together in the former's 2016 film Hacksaw Ridge.[35] The film premiered at
the 75th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2018,[36] before receiving a release in the United States on March 22, 2019.
[37