LOS ANGELES, August 10, 2017 – RLJE Films, a brand of RLJ Entertainment (NASDAQ: RLJE), has acquired all North American rights to the highly anticipated film BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99. After the successful collaboration on the critically acclaimed western Bone Tomahawk, RLJE Films, writer/director S. Craig Zahler, producers Jack Heller from ASSEMBLE Media and Dallas Sonnier from Cinestate, unite with IMG Films, on this action-packed film. Los Angeles-based XYZ Films will handle foreign sales and serve as executive producers on the project.BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 stars Vince Vaughn (Hacksaw Ridge, “True Detective”), Jennifer Carpenter (“Dexter”), Marc Blucas (“Underground”), Udo Kier (Blade), and Don Johnson (Django Unchained). The film will make its World Premiere at the 2017 Venice International Film Festival and will continue on to screen at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and Fantastic Fest.
RLJE Films plans to release BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 in theaters on Oct. 6, 2017.
“With the announced Venice, Toronto and Fantastic Fest premieres, the verdict is in. S. Craig Zahler has done it again,” said Mark Ward, RLJE Film’s chief acquisitions officer. “Considering the success of Bone Tomahawk and the stellar performance by Vince Vaughn, we couldn’t be more thrilled to reunite and bring BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 to audiences.”
In BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99, a former boxer named Bradley (Vince Vaughn) loses his job as an auto mechanic, and his troubled marriage is about to end. At this crossroads in his life, he feels that he has no better option than to work for an old buddy as a drug courier. This improves his situation until the terrible day that he finds himself in a gunfight between a group of police officers and his own ruthless allies. When the smoke clears, Bradley is badly hurt and thrown in prison, where his enemies force him to commit acts of violence that turn the place into a savage battleground.
Ward and Jess De Leo from RLJE negotiated the deal with Sonnier, Heller, and WME on behalf of the filmmakers.
Writer/director S. Craig Zahler is an award-winning screenwriter, director, novelist, cinematographer and musician. Zahler’s newest novel Hug Chickenpenny: The Panegyric of an Anomalous Child is set for publication this fall.
