Lord knows filmmaker Zack Snyder has a) been working on the zombie movie “Army Of The Dead” for what feels like an exorbitantly long time and b) has a checkered history with working with Warner Bros. — though to be fair, they were extremely on #TeamSnyder for several years, giving him “Man Of Steel,” and the keys to the DCEU universe even after expensive flops like “Suckerpunch,” and the underperforming “Guardians of Ga’Hoole” and “Watchmen.”
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For one, these two issues are part and parcel. Snyder’s “Army Of The Dead” has been taking a while, in part, because he’s had to first finish up, “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” his HBO Max director’s cut version of “Justice League.” This is where it all connects. Snyder directed the poorly received “Batman V. Superman: Dawn Of Justice” and this is where his relationship with Warner Bros. seemed to deteriorate. While he left “Justice League” on his own accord for Joss Whedon to finish (he had a tragic death in the family and felt he could no longer finish the film), there were several rumors flying around that Snyder could not take the pressure of WB trying to meddle and change his “Justice League” vision which juggling grief (which seems accurate, given what Whedon did to it, how fans reacted and how we eventually got the “Snyder Cut”). One reporter at Mashable, seemingly saying “f*ck you” to the film industry as he walked away for good, even reported on Twitter that Snyder had been fired from “Justice League.” That’s never been verified, but here we are.
Snyder’s in EW today, showing off a new first-look image of the long-awaited “Army Of The Dead” (which, to be fair, took even extra additional time because Snyder recast and reshot Chris D’Elia‘s entire role after disturbing #MeToo sexual harassment allegations surfaced about him). Snyder calls the pitch an enticing “zombie heist movie” which does sound kind of awesome, especially when you remember his “Dawn Of The Dead” movie is arguably his best.
But apparently, Warner Bros. wasn’t that interested in it and it languished in development– though it’s unclear if this was a post DCEU decision or what.
“They didn’t want to spend that kind of money on a zombie movie, or just didn’t take it that seriously,” Snyder told EW. “I was always like, ‘Look guys, this is more than [just a zombie movie],’ but it fizzled out.”
Netflix, however, was totally game and willing to jump on board right away. “We were in a meeting at Netflix and I was talking about some of these scripts I was working on,” Snyder recalled. “And I mentioned the idea to [Netflix head of original films Scott Stuber] and he was like, ‘That is the movie! Go write that movie and let’s make it.’ I was like, ‘What, do you mean now?’ And he’s like, ‘Go write it tomorrow and we’ll do shoot it in a week.'”
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Netflix was so enthusiastic about the idea, the streamer also funded a four-hour animated prequel series. When does the movie hit? That’s still unclear, though it does feel like a tentpole that Netflix could try and release in the summer. Either way, Snyder is enthusiastic about it.
“It is a full-blown, balls-to-the-wall zombie heist movie, so it’s genre-on-genre in a great way,” he said. “So you expect pure zombie mayhem, and you get that, 100 percent. But also you get these really amazing characters on a fantastic journey. It’s going to surprise people that there’s a lot of warmth and real emotion with these great characters.”
Check out the first look photos below.
