Zombieland Director Ruben Fleischer Wants to Sink His Teeth Into a Vampire Western

Ruben Fleischer is talking zombies again, but the project he really wants to sink his teeth into is a Western with a vampire at the center. Yes, that mash-up is exactly what it sounds like.

The pitch

In a new Deadline chat, the Zombieland and Zombieland: Double Tap director said he has a dream genre swing lined up: a straight-up Western anchored by a bloodsucker antihero. His logline is simple and kind of great:

'Like Unforgiven, if Clint Eastwood was a vampire.'

Fleischer also said the two kinds of movies he always wanted to make were a gangster pic (check, he did Gangster Squad) and a Western (not yet). This would tick that last box.

Where he has been

• Feature debut: Zombieland (2009), the horror-comedy that put him on the map.
• Fun behind-the-scenes nugget: after Zombieland, Tom Cruise had Fleischer on a short list to direct Mission: Impossible 4. He passed, deciding he wasn’t ready for something that massive.
• Next wave: TV work plus 30 Minutes or Less (comedy), Gangster Squad (crime), and the Marvel-adjacent Venom.
• Return to the apocalypse: Zombieland: Double Tap in 2019.
• Recent output: a mix of TV and big studio jobs like Uncharted and Now You See Me, Now You Don’t.

What is actually next

He says talks have officially started to get Zombieland 3 moving. The catch: he isn’t aiming to have it out in the world until 2029. Translation: there’s a long runway, which leaves plenty of time to slot in that Western vampire movie first if it comes together.

On the magician-thieves front, Fleischer is developing a fourth Now You See Me movie. That one may heat up faster now that the latest installment, Now You See Me, Now You Don’t, opened at No. 1 at the box office over its first weekend.

My read

A dusty, somber Western built around an immortal gunslinger is a cool angle, especially if he plays it as a character piece and not just an action gag. If he can bring the genre-mixing snap of Zombieland to a more stoic Western frame, there’s something there.

Would you watch 'Unforgiven, but the cowboy has fangs'? I’m in. How about you?