After his baffling enigma of a performance as a crime lord boss in the much-maligned second season of HBO’s “True Detective” in 2015, the Vince Vaughn-aissance is back on track with the erstwhile Wedding Crasher taking another leftfield career choice and transforming himself into one of the most formidable and imposing screen presences of the year.
That newfound steely intensity is on rich display in the new trailer for “Brawl in Cell Block 99,” written and directed by recently anointed B-movie wunderkind S. Craig Zahler, who created a real stir with his debut feature, the revisionist cannibal-western “Bone Tomahawk” starring Kurt Russell, which landed on many end-of-year best lists in 2015. Vaughn and Zahler’s ‘Brawl’ might even mark the beginning of a fruitful working partnership as the pair are currently in production in Vancouver on corrupt cop pic “Dragged Across Concrete,” co-starring Vaughn’s “Hacksaw Ridge” director Mel Gibson.
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As with his eye-opening debut, however, don’t go in expecting a nuts-and-bolts B-movie from Zahler, who has raved to EW about Vaughn’s process and the methodology of putting a real brawl on screen.
“I’m not in any hurry to get to the brawling, but when you land there, you will know it, and it happens for a fairly sustained period of time. Vince Vaughn was so committed to this movie and he happens to have some boxing experience which really really helped. He was skilled enough that [we could film] a shot where it was going to be five hits exchanged, 10 hits exchanged, 15 hits exchanged, 20 hits exchanged, with no cuts.”
The official synopsis reveals that Vaughn plays Bradley Thomas, a down-on-his-luck boxer turned auto mechanic.
A former boxer named Bradley loses his job as an auto mechanic, and his troubled marriage is about to expire. At this crossroads in his life, he feels that he has no better option than to work for an old buddy as a drug courier. This vocation improves his situation until the terrible day that he finds himself in a gunfight between a group of police officers and his own ruthless allies. When the smoke clears, Bradley is badly hurt and thrown in prison, where his enemies force him to commit acts of violence that turn the place into a savage battleground.
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Meanwhile, Zahler’s director’s statement regarding the pic promising intense action sequences with minimal edits:
I am very proud of Brawl in Cell Block 99, my second feature as a writer, director, and co-composer. Returning to this movie from Bone Tomahawk are producers Jack Heller and Dallas Sonnier, cinematographer Benji Bakshi, production designer Freddy Waff, editor Greg D’Auria, and my composing partner Jeff Herriott. I had the great fortune of collaborating with Vince Vaughn, who exceeded my already high expectations for him both as a performer and a human being. Comparably impressive to me was how fully he embraced the physically demanding and somewhat dangerous manner in which I wanted to shoot all of the fight sequences, which were choreographed by the talented Drew Leary. All of these brawls are performed by him with very few cuts and zero manipulation. I wanted these sequences to look and feel very different than those found in modern movies, and they do. The film follows Bradley through tragedy, success, incarceration, mystery, and violence, but it is his relationship with his wife Lauren that is the beating heart of the story. Jennifer Carpenter plays this key part and proves once again that she has few creative peers with her layered and heartfelt work in this picture. I also had the great fortune of working with Don Johnson, Udo Kier, and Marc Blucas. My longtime dream to write soul music with Jeff Herriott was realized on the original soundtrack for the film. Soul legends The O’Jay’s and Butch Tavares and talented newcomer Adi Armour sang these tunes, which tie into and color the environment. All of these elements build the strange and brutal world of Brawl in Cell Block 99. Get ready.
Rounding out the cast of brawlers are Jennifer Carpenter, Marc Blucas, Udo Kier and “Miami Vice” legend Don Johnson. “Brawl in Cell Block 99” hits Venice, TIFF and Fantastic Fest and opens in theaters on October 6th, and on demand and digital HD, October 13th. [Deadline]