Fantastic Fest reveals lineup of Turkish delights and Kurt Russell’s ‘Bone Tomahawk’

Austin, Texas’ Fantastic Fest is eight days of utter genre-movie revelry with copious deep-cut screenings paired with wild panels and events, including the Fantastic Fest “debates,” which take place inside a boxing ring.

On Wednesday the first wave of movie screenings and the big night closer have been revealed, and it’s no surprise that each selection is a calamity of the delightfully odd and unique.

First up, the big announcement: Director S. Craig Zahler is bringing an “existential horror western” (whatever that delightful moniker means) titled “Bone Tomahawk” for the festival closer. It stars Kurt Russell as one of four men who, according to the synopsis, “set out to rescue a local woman and a young deputy who’ve been kidnapped by a tribe of cannibalistic troglodytes.”

Russell will join cast member Matthew Fox at the festival. Expect the “Tombstone” quotes to flow.

Also announced is a retrospective of Turkish genre cinema. “Due to the high cost of exhibiting American movies, Turkish filmmakers created their own versions of these classics, and with it a new universe of madcap cinema was born,” Fantastic Fest head programmer Evrim Ersoy said via press release. “I’m proud to say we’ve selected some of their wildest rides.”

The feature “Remix, Remake and Rip-Off” by director Cem Kaya will have its U.S. premiere, while heaps of additional Turkish genre cinema will also be screened, including “Dunyayi Kurtaran Adam,” also described as “Turkish Star Wars,” and “Tarkan Viking Kani” (Tarkan vs. the Vikings).

Along with the Fantastic Fest programming is a special Mondo Gallery event curated by cult moviemaker Nicolas Winding Refn centered around his newly released hardcover book about rare American exploitation movie posters titled, “Nicolas Winding Refn: The Act of Seeing.”

We’ve included a roundup of the first wave of films in the above gallery, but for the full list and more details on Fantastic Fest, head to the official website. Fantastic Fest takes place from Sept. 24 to Oct. 1.