- Born
- S. Craig Zahler was born on January 23, 1973 in Miami, Florida, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Bone Tomahawk (2015), Dragged Across Concrete (2018) and Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017).
- Often works with Don Johnson, Udo Kier, Jennifer Carpenter, Fred Melamed, and Vince Vaughn; per Johnson, the group refer to themselves as "The Zahler Players".
- Films that begin grounded in the real-world and slowly transform into surrealistic tales with hyper-stylized depictions of violence.
- He wrote scripts for 9 years while working as a catering chef.
- His dark western script The Brigands of Rattleborge won the #1 top position on the Black List for best unproduced screenplay.
- He explained at the premiere of his film Dragged Across Concrete that actor Fred Melamed is his "muse". After seeing Melamed in the Coen Brothers' A Serious Man, he told Melamed that he wanted him to appear in every film he ever makes. Thus far, Melamed has done so.
- S. Craig Zahler is the author of the western novel A Congregation of Jackals, which was nominated for both major western writing awards, The Spur and The Peacemaker.
- Likes to be referred to as "Zahler", even by his girlfriend and closest friends.
- I always believed in my abilities as a writer, but the disparity between what I write and what is made in Hollywood is HUGE. This is very likely why I daily fight to push my scripts forward.
- Write what you think is good, refine it, send it out, and repeat for many years. Find a day job that is satisfying, and also lets your mind wander so that the only pressure you feel is to become a better writer, not 'get rich in Hollywood'.
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