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When The Hollywood Reporter first caught up with writer-director Zach Cregger in the lead-up to Barbarian’s 2022 release, he detailed the struggles he faced in getting the inventive horror movie off the ground. The film was part of a larger effort to reboot his career after, by his own admission, he wasn’t particularly proud of his previous co-directorial work in the 2010s comedy space.
Since then, Cregger has gone on one of the most charmed runs of any filmmaker in town. He followed Barbarian’s critically acclaimed, highly profitable release with Weapons, another well-regarded genre film that grossed $270 million against a $38 million budget and featured an Oscar-winning performance from Amy Madigan as Aunt Gladys. A prequel about Madigan’s character is now deep into development.
Like Weapons, Cregger’s current film, Resident Evil, and his upcoming Steven Spielberg-produced sci-fi picture, The Flood, were each the subject of furious bidding wars. That kind of demand cements a remarkable career turnaround for a filmmaker who had to scratch and claw to get Barbarian financed just five years ago. But it’s also a subject that Cregger is reluctant to dwell on, given how “here today, gone today” the entertainment industry can be.
