Jennifer Carpenter’s gloves are coming off. Deadline is reporting today that the actress, best known for roles across Dexter and CBS’ now-canned Limitless series, has enlisted for the Brawl in Cell Block 99.
There, Carpenter will star opposite True Detective season 2 alum Vince Vaughn in Craig Zahler’s “brutal action thriller.” Given that this is the director that shocked audiences late last year with the über-violent Western Bone Tomahawk, we’re inclined to believe that elevator pitch.
Shooting is expected to get underway next month ahead of a theatrical release some time in 2017. Deadline didn’t disclose the specifics of Carpenter’s involvement, but we understand that Zahler’s white-knuckle ride follows a “former boxer who loses his job as an auto mechanic as his troubled marriage is about to end. Feeling that he has no better option than to work for an old buddy as a drug courier, he enters into that line of work. That improves his situation until he finds himself in a gunfight between a group of police officers and his own ruthless allies. Bradley is badly hurt and thrown in prison, where his enemies force him to commit acts of violence that turn the place into a savage battleground.”
Enlisting Dallas Sonnier and Jack Heller to produce, we’ll be keeping tabs on the Brawl in Cell Block 99 as it inches closer to production.