Director S Craig Zahler, the man behind such hardboiled films as Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99 and the just-released Dragged Across Concrete, has told RTÉ Entertainment that the Irish actor he most wants to work with is Ardal O'Hanlon.
Although Zahler's films to date have been tough as nails, he also wants to make a comedy, with O'Hanlon top of Zahler's list after he became a fan of Father Ted.
"That guy is maybe the most, like line by line... That performance might be the funniest performance in television history," said Zahler of O'Hanlon as Father Dougal McGuire.
"Every comedy line they give him, I just can't believe it: if the line is great, it's great; if the line is ok, it's great! I find him to be one of the funniest characters ever."
"I seek out different stuff and I'd heard a couple of different places how funny that show was," Zahler enthused. "And then I saw it and it's really well written, it's a great show. But that Dougal! Man! I can't think of a single funnier character in anything."
"Colin Farrell is particularly good with dry comedy as well," Zahler continued. "I probably have a couple of more comedic things in my future, so I guess I could look at both of those performers."
The director also revealed that he tried to cast Brendan Gleeson in his feature debut, horror western Bone Tomahawk.
"At one point, when we lost Richard Jenkins for Bone Tomahawk in the role of Chicory - because he had to go do a miniseries - we went to him [Gleeson] but he wasn't available. And then, obviously, I got Richard Jenkins. There is an Irish actor I actually attempted to cast - he would've been the Chicory character in Bone Tomahawk!"
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"I will answer a question that you're not asking," Zahler concluded, which is 'If you could bring back any person in the human race who is dead who would it be?'
"And it would be Phil Lynott. I am a diehard Thin Lizzy fan and listen to them constantly. So I would choose an Irishman over... Sorry Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and all those other people, I would choose our friend from Thin Lizzy."
Dragged Across Concrete is in cinemas now.
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Read an interview with S Craig Zahler about Dragged Across Concrete here.
