2015 American Western film
Bone Tomahawk is a 2015 American Western horror film written and directed by S. Craig Zahler in his directorial debut, and starring Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, Lili Simmons, Evan Jonigkeit, David Arquette, Zahn McClarnon and Sid Haig. It was produced by Jack Heller and Dallas Sonnier. The film is about a small-town sheriff who leads a posse into a desolate region to rescue three people who were abducted by a cannibalistic clan of troglodytes.
Development of the film started when Zahler's friend and manager Sonnier recommended creating a film adaptation of Zahler's Western novel Wraiths of the Broken Land. Realizing that such a project could not be adapted on a low budget, Zahler opted to write a rescue Western instead. Casting began in October 2014, with Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy Olyphant, and Jennifer Carpenter signed on to play before being replaced by Wilson, Fox, and Simmons respectively due to scheduling conflicts. Principal photography took place in California over a course of 21 days in October 2014.
The premiere of Bone Tomahawk took place at Fantastic Fest on October 1, 2015. RLJ Entertainment gave the film a limited release on October 23, grossing over $480,000 in theater sales and $4.32 million in home media sales against a $1.8 million budget. The film received mainly positive reviews, with praise for Zahler's screenplay and direction and the performances of the ensemble cast.
Plot summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.