Ridley Scott’s long-gestating Western novel adaptation would be the perfect movie follow-up to the Kurt Russell-starring Old West cannibal thrillerBone Tomahawk. Although it wasn’t a massive hit on its initial release in 2015, in the decade since,Bone Tomahawkhas become a beloved cult classic. It starts off as a typical Western, with a search party riding out into the frontier to find three missing townspeople, butit morphs into a gruesome horror film when they encounter a bloodthirsty tribeof cave-dwelling cannibals.
Bone Tomahawkmarked the directorial debut of novelist S. Craig Zahler. Zahler has since gone on to direct similarly gruesome, violent thrillers likeBrawl in Cell Block 99andDragged Across Concrete, but he’s never returned to the Western genre. So,Bone Tomahawkfans hoping to see another grisly, blood-drenched Western from Zahler’s twisted mind have had no luck. Butthere is a Zahler-adjacent Western project in development hell that would make for the perfect successor toBone Tomahawk.
Wraiths Of The Broken Land Would Be Perfect After Bone Tomahawk
Ridley Scott Was Attached To Adapt S. Craig Zahler’s Western Novel For The Big Screen
Before he became a filmmaker, Zahler was an author who had written such books as the crime novelMean Business on North Ganson Streetand the western novelWraiths of the Broken Land. In fact, in an interview withThe Daily Dead, Zahler revealed thatBone Tomahawkbegan its life as an adaptation ofWraiths of the Broken Landfor himself to direct.
Since he couldn’t adaptWraiths of the Broken Landon a low budget, he wrote the original script forBone Tomahawkas a companion piece that could be produced for less money. In 2016, shortly after the release ofBone Tomahawk,Deadlinereported thatRidley Scott was attached to direct a movie adaptation ofWraiths of the Broken Land,withThe Martian’s Drew Goddard set to write the script.
Wraiths of the Broken Landis a brutal Western epic that sees a group of men embarking on a dangerous mission to save their captive sisters.
Wraiths of the Broken Landis a brutal Western epic that sees a group of men embarking on a dangerous mission to save their captive sisters. Given the story, this would likely bea similarly violent, uncompromising Westernthatwould be perfect forBone Tomahawkfans, but it’s yet to materialize.
What Happened With Ridley Scott’s Wraiths Of The Broken Land Movie?
Scott Moved On To Other Projects
According to theDeadlinereport,Ridley Scottwas planning to makeWraiths of the Broken Landhis next project after 2017’sAlien: Covenant. However, by that time, Scott had moved on to other projects. He ended up releasingAll the Money in the Worldin the same year asAlien: Covenant, then focused his attention onThe Last DuelandHouse of Gucci, thenNapoleon, and thenGladiator II. Next,Scott is tackling a Bee Gees biopic. With each successive Scott project,it seems less and less likely thatWraiths of the Broken Landwill ever get made.
$1,8 million
$382,579
91%
74%
Bone Tomahawk
Cast
Bone Tomahawk is a Western film that follows Sheriff Franklin Hunt, who gathers together a group of fighters to save three kidnapped victims from a clan of cannibals. After the town’s doctor is kidnapped along with two others, forcing the sheriff to partner with the town’s Native American professor and find the tribe before it’s too late.
