Range Media Partners Signs Filmmaker, Novelist & Musician S. Craig Zahler

Anthony D'Alessandro
·2 min read

EXCLUSIVE: Range Media Partners has signed award-winning screenwriter, director, novelist, cinematographer, and musician S. Craig Zahler, Deadline has learned.

“We are deeply honored to partner with UTA and work with Craig. There’s one Zahler on the planet. And that’s for good reason. He’s a true multi hyphenate. And a singular voice in writing directing and pure creation,” Michael Cooper of Range Media Partners tells Deadline.

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Zahler is most widely known as the writer, director, and co-composer for the Independent Spirit Award nominated film Bone Tomahawk starring Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, and Richard Jenkins. The film was nominated in the categories of Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor.

Recently, Zahler wrote and directed Brawl in Cell Block 99, a New York Times Critic’s Pick, starring Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Carpenter, and Don Johnson. The movie premiered at the Venice Film Festival and went on to critical acclaim.

Both films were added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 2017. Additional film credits include Dragged Across Concrete starring Mel Gibson, Vince Vaughn, and Tory Kittles. All three films are Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Zahler’s debut western novel, A Congregation of Jackals was nominated for the Peacemaker and the Spur awards, and his 2014 novels Mean Business on North Ganson Street and Corpus Chrome, Inc. both received starred reviews for excellence in Booklist. His newest book is Hug Chickenpenny: The Panegyric of an Anomalous Child, a gothic tale that he will bring to the big screen with the help of his new creative partners, The Jim Henson Company.

In addition to writing and directing, Zahler has founded and played in several bands, including the doomy epic metal outfit Realmbuilder, whose albums have been released by I Hate Records of Sweden. With longtime friend and songwriting partner Jeff Herriott, S. Craig Zahler co-composed the orchestral score for Bone Tomahawk, and the soul music for Brawl in Cell Block 99 and Dragged Across Concrete, as well as the jazz compositions for the latter. Zahler and Herriott also make music as Binary Reptile, a synthesizer project that provided the music for the “ear movie”, The Narrow Caves.

Range Media Partners was founded in September 2020 by Dave Bugliari, Mackenzie Condon Roussos, Rich Cook, Michael Cooper, Susie Fox, Matt Graham, Sandra Kang, Rachel Kropa, Chelsea McKinnies, Peter Micelli, Mick Sullivan, Byron Wetzel, and Jack Whigham. Range Media Partners’ clientele spans film, TV, music, literary, and activism. Their filmmaker roster includes M. Night Shyamalan, Michael Bay, Alma Har’el, Lake Bell, Guy Nattiv and Timothy Van Patten among others.

Zahler is also represented by UTA.

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