The writer and director of last year’s “Savage” just wrapped up his third feature film project in a few weeks.
This is the auction’s flashbang. Within 15 hours of first arriving in town, a Contains 25 pages of short stories titled “Occupant” by novice Victor Sweetser wrote $15,. There were many studios and filmmakers fighting for this project – Paramount, Lionsgate, Amazon – but in the end it was New Line won it.
The turmoil in early February illustrated the fiery streak Zach Cregger, the man behind last year’s horror flick Barbarian , cost $4.5 million to make, grossed over $
This is the third project Cregger has started in as many weeks, which is quite unusual for a novice filmmaker, even though CAA, Artists First and Jackoway Austen are also represented on the project.
At the beginning of the year, Cregger set the horror thriller Weapons In a crazy auction New Line also won and the filmmakers will earn $000 million to write and direct what will be his follow-up to barbarian. A few days later, New Line (again) as Companion All Out, Cregger will co-produce the sci-fi thriller with BoulderLight Pictures and Lee. Both (yes, both) projects come with automatic green lights and are expected to shoot this summer.
Prior to that, Cregger co-founded comedy troupe The Whitest on the comedy game Kids U’ Know and co-directed a little-known 1296 Movie Miss March
. He also starred in a film called Wrecked aired on TBS for three seasons.
Barbarians was rejected by almost every production entity in Hollywood, in some cases twice, due to its unique structure and many twists and turns. But the film proved to be a hit with audiences and critics, especially other producers and executives who immediately wanted to join Cregger’s business.
“He capitalized, then leveled up,” said an executive at a rival studio, but he lost to ) Crew
.
New Line is excited to be a part of the emerging Cregger business. Horror, one of the few genres that has consistently operated theatrically outside of the superhero genre, now has three projects tied to a talent poised to be the face of the horror movie division.
“If I just saw Savages
, it’s enough for me to bet that Zach has had a long and impressive career,” said Richard Brener, New Line President and CCO explain. “But after reading Weapons and discuss after companion and Occupant with him, That’s a virtual lock. Add to that his cooperative spirit and persona, and well, I hope he remains part of the New Line family for as long as possible.”
A version of this story first appeared in February 20 Issue of The Hollywood Reporter Magazine.
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