Vince Vaughn and Adrien Brody are set to star in The Bookie & the Bruiser. Per Variety, the upcoming crime thriller stems from writer-director S. Craig Zahler.
The official synopsis reads: “Set in 1959 New York, ‘The Bookie & the Bruiser’ follows a pensive, Jewish fellow named Rivner and an oversized Italian-American tough named Boscolo from the Lower East Side, both of whom served overseas during WWII and returned changed men who no longer fit inside the lives they’d left behind.
“Uninterested in taking orders from bosses or playing by the rules of polite society, the two friends partner up as a bookmaker and an enforcer and create an illicit gambling operation that proves to be very profitable, though risky, and their situation gets rather sticky when they find themselves stuck between a powerful Irish gang and the Mafia.”
Vaughn previously collaborated with Zahler on Brawl in Cell Block 99 and Dragged Across Concrete. Vaughn will next appear in John Krasinski’s If. Meanwhile, Brody is best known for his Oscar-winning role as Władysław Szpilman in The Pianist. In recent years, Brody has appeared in Winning Time, Succession, and Poker Face.
What to Expect in The Bookie & the Bruiser?
The Bookie & the Bruiser is written and directed by Zahler, his first feature film since 2018’s Dragged Across Concrete. Anthony Katagas, the Oscar-winning producer for 12 Years a Slave, will produce through Keep Your Head Productions alongside Dave Caplan.
UTA Independent Film Group and Range Media Partners will represent North American distribution rights, while Anton will handle international distributors. The Bookie & the Bruiser will be financed by C2 Motion Picture Group.
“We are thrilled to be working with the visionary S. Craig Zahler on this action-packed tale of a searing conflict between the Irish-American and Italian Mafias in New York and see Vince and Adrien team up in this very unique, power-charged film,” Anton CEO Sébastien Raybaud said.
The Bookie & the Bruiser is in pre-production, with a target film date of fall 2024.
