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The filmmaker has gone from zombie apocalypses and ancient Greece to nightmares and Metropolis. Now he is heading into far away galaxies.
*Art not official
Snyder has set his next project, an epic sci-fi fantasy titled Rebel Moon that he is co-writing and will direct and produce for Netflix, the home of his most recent hit, Army of the Dead.
And it re-teams the filmmaker with many of the creative colleagues of his past original ventures.
Snyder is co-writing the script with Army co-screenwriter Shay Hatten and Kurt Johnstad, who co-wrote 300, Snyder’s stylish sword-and-sandal flick adapting the Frank Miller comic. Snyder and Johnstad will receive story by credit.
The story is set in motion when a peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy is threatened by the armies of a tyrannical regent named Balisarius.
Desperate people dispatch a young woman with a mysterious past to seek out warriors from neighboring planets to help them make a stand.
“This is me growing up as an Akira Kurosawa fan, a Star Wars fan,” Snyder tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s my love of sci-fi and a giant adventure. My hope is that this also becomes a massive IP and a universe that can be built out.”
Rebel finds the germs of its origins in a Star Wars pitch the filmmaker had developed a decade ago.
It was a more mature take on the universe created by George Lucas and didn’t move beyond any meaningful conversations after the Walt Disney Company acquired LucasFilm in 2012.
At one point, he and Newman even went down the path of making it a series.
But it was as a feature that he felt its true potential lay. He began reworking the idea with Johnstad and really dove in at the same time as he began making Army of the Dead, bringing in that movie’s co-scribe, Hatten.
The latter, at 27, had quietly become an in-demand franchise writer, deepening the world of John Wick for Lionsgate by working on the third and upcoming fourth and fifth installments.
“I’ve spent the last two or three years building out this universe. Every corner has to be painted in. I’ve been doing designs, constantly drawing and really cultivating its fertile ground to make this world fully realized.”
Army was viewed by 72 million people in its first four weeks, according to Netflix, landing it in the streamer’s top 10 most watched movies.
Even before its May 14 release, Snyder and Stone Quarry had a German-language prequel movie and an anime series in production, making Army not just an original property, but a franchise.
Rebel will be another IP and a hoped-for franchise for Netflix, which is building its arsenal in the age of streaming wars.
The feature will be Snyder’s next movie and the hope is to begin production in early 2022.
“I’ve been working on this on the side for so long, it’s pretty far along,” he says.
All this unfurls as Snyder has one of the biggest years in his filmmaking career. On top of Army and the new project, he also saw his vision of Justice League restored and make a splashy debut on HBO Max.
And the movie’s recent international release on DVD and Blu-ray saw it catapult to the top of the sales charts in several countries, France and Brazil among them.
*Art not official
Snyder has set his next project, an epic sci-fi fantasy titled Rebel Moon that he is co-writing and will direct and produce for Netflix, the home of his most recent hit, Army of the Dead.
And it re-teams the filmmaker with many of the creative colleagues of his past original ventures.
Snyder is co-writing the script with Army co-screenwriter Shay Hatten and Kurt Johnstad, who co-wrote 300, Snyder’s stylish sword-and-sandal flick adapting the Frank Miller comic. Snyder and Johnstad will receive story by credit.
The story is set in motion when a peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy is threatened by the armies of a tyrannical regent named Balisarius.
Desperate people dispatch a young woman with a mysterious past to seek out warriors from neighboring planets to help them make a stand.
“This is me growing up as an Akira Kurosawa fan, a Star Wars fan,” Snyder tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s my love of sci-fi and a giant adventure. My hope is that this also becomes a massive IP and a universe that can be built out.”
Rebel finds the germs of its origins in a Star Wars pitch the filmmaker had developed a decade ago.
It was a more mature take on the universe created by George Lucas and didn’t move beyond any meaningful conversations after the Walt Disney Company acquired LucasFilm in 2012.
At one point, he and Newman even went down the path of making it a series.
But it was as a feature that he felt its true potential lay. He began reworking the idea with Johnstad and really dove in at the same time as he began making Army of the Dead, bringing in that movie’s co-scribe, Hatten.
The latter, at 27, had quietly become an in-demand franchise writer, deepening the world of John Wick for Lionsgate by working on the third and upcoming fourth and fifth installments.
“I’ve spent the last two or three years building out this universe. Every corner has to be painted in. I’ve been doing designs, constantly drawing and really cultivating its fertile ground to make this world fully realized.”
Army was viewed by 72 million people in its first four weeks, according to Netflix, landing it in the streamer’s top 10 most watched movies.
Even before its May 14 release, Snyder and Stone Quarry had a German-language prequel movie and an anime series in production, making Army not just an original property, but a franchise.
Rebel will be another IP and a hoped-for franchise for Netflix, which is building its arsenal in the age of streaming wars.
The feature will be Snyder’s next movie and the hope is to begin production in early 2022.
“I’ve been working on this on the side for so long, it’s pretty far along,” he says.
All this unfurls as Snyder has one of the biggest years in his filmmaking career. On top of Army and the new project, he also saw his vision of Justice League restored and make a splashy debut on HBO Max.
And the movie’s recent international release on DVD and Blu-ray saw it catapult to the top of the sales charts in several countries, France and Brazil among them.
Zack Snyder Sets Next Movie, Sci-Fi Adventure ‘Rebel Moon,’ at Netflix (Exclusive)
Snyder will co-write and direct the intergalactic adventure inspired by Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and 'Star Wars.'
www.hollywoodreporter.com
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