Filmmaker S. Craig Zahler earned raves for his horror western debut Bone Tomahawk. Zahler’s follow-up debuts this year and it features one sour and smooth-headed Vince Vaughn hulking around the screen.
The teaser trailer for Brawl in Cell Block 99 arrived on Tuesday and it’s a gloomy peek at the upcoming action thriller. The film follows Vaughn as an ex-boxer that finds himself at a crossroads when work and his marriage wave goodbye to him. Taking up work as a drug courier leads this big ol’ slab of Vaughn in jail and battling to survive. This is not quippy comedy Vince Vaughn we’re tethered to in the trailer. This particular character is mostly quiet and finds himself punching a car to pieces like he’s in a Street Fighter II bonus stage or something. No, really. There’s lots of shots of Vaughn swinging his fists at his car window, side mirror and the hood.
The pairing of Zahler and Vaughn should make for an interesting combo. Vaughn’s recent filmography isn’t exactly unimpeachable (that’s not to say there aren’t bright spots) so a showcase piece with a rising writer-director could be a fantastic thing for the Wedding Crashers actor to add to his body of work. If nothing else, it’ll be neat to Vaughn take on this big bruiser gig.
Brawl in Cell Block 99 stars Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Carpenter, Don Johnson and Udo FREAKING Kier and will arrive in limited release on October 6.
