One of our most-anticipated movies gets hopeful update from Oscar-winner

Stephen Porzio

The period crime thriller is set to star two major actors.

One of JOE’s most-anticipated upcoming movies is The Bookie & the Bruiser, a crime thriller from novelist turned filmmaker S. Craig Zahler (Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99).

Announced last May, the film was reported by Variety to be starring Oscar-winner Adrien Brody (The Pianist) and Zahler’s frequent collaborator Vince Vaughn (Cell Block 99, Dragged Across Concrete).

The plot synopsis from the outlet read:

“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.”

Zahler hasn’t made a film in nearly seven years, since 2018’s Dragged Across Concrete.

But those familiar with his work will know that his movies manage to blend rich characters and detail with hard-hitting, shocking genre stories – resulting in films like no other.

Last May, Variety reported that The Bookie & the Bruiser was in pre-production and was planned to be shot in autumn 2024 – something which did not wind up coming to pass.

So, when JOE spoke to Brody about his new drama The Brutalist – for which he is earning career-best reviews – we let him know about our excitement for the Zahler-directed crime thriller.

We then asked about the status of The Bookie & the Bruiser, to which the actor replied: “I’m not sure what’s happening at the moment but they’re going to make the movie, I hope. We’ll see how it goes,” before adding that he “loves” Zahler’s work.

In The Brutalist, Brody plays a Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor and visionary architect named László Tóth who arrives in the US in 1947 in the hopes of rebuilding his life and his work there.

Initially living in poverty, Tóth eventually meets the wealthy and prominent industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce) who recognises his talent for building.

Van Buren commissions the architect to build a grand community centre in Philadelphia, a sprawling process that will take years.

Initially delighted by the work, Tóth comes to realise that power and legacy “come at a heavy cost”.

The Brutalist won three Golden Globe awards last week (including the Best Actor in a Drama Movie prize for Brody) and is expected to secure several nominations at this year’s Oscars.

JOE also spoke to its co-writer and director Brady Corbet about the difficulties he faced making the drama, which you can read about right here.