Tobey Maguire attached to star in and produce the film, while Zahler was set to write the script. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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." 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. 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. The film premiered at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2018, before receiving a release in the United States on March 22, 2019. Personal life Although he was raised Jewish, Zahler is an atheist. Zahler has stated that he is "not politically driven; I’m not very politically interested", believing in the philosophy of "art over politics." Zahler is unmarried, stating that he has no interest in ever marrying. Bibliography A Congregation of Jackals (2010) Wraiths of the Broken Land (2013) Corpus Chrome, Inc. (2014) Mean Business on North Ganson Street (2014) The Narrow Caves (2017) [audiobook]