As everyone was enjoying their Christmas with family and food, Zack Snyder decided to play Santa and show off his former Superman wearing the classic Christopher Reeve suit.
“Henry Cavill. This photo. It was undeniable,” Snyder wrote on Thursday. The photo is exactly what it promises, showing the Man of Steelactor in the midday, standing in the middle of a field with the clouds behind him and the sun peeking out. He also shared a second, more close-up photo, revealing he used both to sell Warner Bros. on casting Cavill for the role. “Everyone agreed: Henry Cavill was Superman. That’s where the journey began.”
Snyder’s previously recalled the experience of seeing Cavill in that classic suit before: in 2016, he told DuJour that everyone went “Dang, you’re Superman!” the day Cavill walked out of the trailer with the suit on. And in a 2011 interview with Entertainment Weekly, the director said Cavill was the only actor who put it on during auditions that didn’t look silly wearing it, highlighting his “crazy-calm confidence” that made Snyder cast him.
It’s been an interesting year getting a behind-the-scenes look at Superman actors. Back in February, we saw Cavill’s audition to play James Bond back when MGM was on the hunt for a new Bond for Casino Royale. Then August came around, and we got a look at David Corenswet’s tape to play the current Supes in James Gunn’s DC movieverse.
In the aftermath of the Peacemaker finale, DC Studios head James Gunn has faced an intense line of questioning regarding John Cena’s very much not meta-human anti-hero, who became the guinea pig to test out ARGUS’ Salvation prison dimension. Fans want to know about Darkseid, whose parademons can be heard in the trees and seen only by Peacemaker as the credits roll.
In a conversation with Screen Crush, the filmmaker revealed that the different universe his version of Salvation exists in does not stick to the script that DC Comics fans might expect in regard to Darkseid, who was featured in the Snyderverse Justice League.
“I don’t expect that to be exactly what it is,” he said bluntly, explaining that he loved the idea of the “Salvation Run,” the 2007 Bill Willingham/Lilah Sturges limited series (that was, fun fact, inspired by a pitch from Game of Thrones scribe George R. R. Martin!). “I liked the idea of supervillains building a society in this other dimension. And I liked the way that it was a very practical way that Amanda Waller and Rick Flag Jr., in that instance, were trying to deal with the problem of meta-humans who continuously escaped from prison in a way that I think a fed-up government might. Those were the things that interested me.”
But where “Salvation Run” and the DCU differ is on the origins of the world: in the comics, the planet was revealed to be a training world used by the New Gods of Apokolips, overseen by Darkseid’s right-hand man, DeSaad. In the DCU, there’ll be no New Gods connection to DeSaad or his master.
“You gotta remember the first and foremost thing is that I’m building a world, okay? And in that world, an aspect of that world is now obviously ARGUS, who are in charge of meta-human activities, have taken upon themselves to start sending meta-human prisoners to Salvation,” Gunn continued. “That’s the plan, at least. And then we’ll have to see how that affects and touches everything else.”
So don’t expect Peacemaker to bump into Darkseid despite the parademons of it all. But not just to make something original inspired by the comics, but because Gunn thinks that Darkseid shouldn’t be touched yet after both the prior DC movieverse and Marvel’s own Ominous Cosmic Big Bad Guy in the form of Thanos. After his MCU run with the Guardians of the Galaxy, featuring Gamora’s connection as Thanos’ daughter and how that tied that larger universe together, Gunn plans to stay away from that sort of territory for now.
“There are aspects of Darkseid and Thanos, [who] are obviously very similar. They look very similar,” Gunn concluded. “Using Darkseid as the big bad right now is not necessarily the thing, for a lot of reasons: because Zack [Snyder] did it so cool in his way. And because [of] Thanos in Marvel.”
Zack Snyder has officially found his next project, as the director is getting to work on a project that is reported as a passion project of his.
What is Zack Snyder’s next movie about?
According to a new report from Deadline, Snyder will direct The Last Photograph, a drama that is described as his “long-awaited passion project,” next. Snyder will direct the project from a screenplay written by Kurt Johnstad, who has worked with Snyder previously on 300 and both Rebel Moon films. Snyder will have a “story by” credit, as well.
The film will follow the story of an ex-DEA operative who returns to South America to try and find his missing niece. “He enlists the help of a war photographer, and the pair journeys into the unknown. “Enlisting the help of a washed-up junkie war photographer, the only person to have seen the face of the killers, he sets out, determined to find the children and the truth, but soon learns he must also face the ghosts of his past,” reads the logline. “Their journey into the unknown takes them farther and farther away from civilization, bringing into question everything they believe, while slowly eroding the distinction between real and surreal.”
Deadline’s report notes that Rebel Moon stars Stuart Martin and Fra Fee will star in the film. The report also mentions that Snyder recently secured financing for the film, and that he chose Martin and Fee, in part, due to the “strong bond” the trio had while working on Rebel Moon.
“The idea of taking camera in hand and simply making a movie in an intimate way is very appealing to me,” said Snyder on his next movie. “The Last Photograph is a meditation of life and death, embodying some of the trials that I have experienced in my own life and the exploration of those ideas through image making.”
The Last Photograph is set to begin production this month, with filming taking place later in the year in Iceland, Colombia, and Los Angeles. Snyder, Deborah Snyder, Wesley Coller, Gianni Nunnari, and Alisha Stickney are all producers on the film.
While it’s unclear what the future holds for the Rebel Moon franchise, Snyder is said to be focusing on “another large production” after The Last Photograph. It’s unclear whether that’s an entirely new project or related to one of his several others, though.
After nearly three decades of development, Zack Snyder’s unadulterated vision for his Rebel Moon space opera is finally at your fingertips.
Snyder had to take an awfully circuitous path to today’s two-part director’s cut release of Rebel Moon on Netflix. Inspired by Seven Samurai, Star Wars, Heavy Metal magazine and a bevy of other properties, the project that was originally known as The Five began to formulate in 1997 alongside co-writer Kurt Johnstad. Eventually, in 2012, Snyder retrofitted his idea for Star Wars and pitched it to Lucasfilm shortly after Disney acquired the beloved IP from franchise mastermind George Lucas. When that didn’t take, he then tried to sell it as a video game and movie to his DC collaborators at the time, Warners Bros. There was even a period of time where he considered making a TV series with Narcos producer Eric Newman.
Snyder’s exit from Warners’ DC universe in 2017 would ultimately get the ball rolling on Rebel Moon, as his longtime collaborator and the now-former Netflix film chief, Scott Stuber, quickly pounced on his newfound availability. To compete with the film franchises of the major studio system, the streamer leaned on Snyder to create a couple original franchises of their own. That agreement initially resulted in 2021’s Army of the Dead and Army of Thieves, but prior to the release of those two well-received pics, Snyder had already called Johnstad to set Rebel Moon in motion at long last.
Along with co-writer Shay Hatten, Snyder and Johnstad generated a 216-page script that was briefly shaved down to 138 pages, but then Snyder reverted to the more robust iteration in order to preserve character. That decision then paved the way for a two-part story that would be dually released in PG-13 cuts and R-rated director’s cuts. This proved to be a controversial choice among some of Snyder’s die-hard fans who, understandably, wanted him to be creatively unleashed once and for all. But with a price tag of nearly $170 million, Snyder played ball with Netflix’s desire to create not only a teenage fanbase that’s unencumbered by the platform’s parental controls, but also merchandising opportunities that are easier to come by with PG-13 material.
Snyder planned the different cuts out in great detail, knowing, for the most part, what would and wouldn’t make the streamer’s PG-13 chapters that ran in the neighborhood of two hours. That meant that various sequences — such as the original, and even more violent, introduction of Ed Skrein’s sadistic baddie, Admiral Noble — had to wait until the release of today’s 204-minute Rebel Moon — Part One: Director’s Cut and the 173-minute Rebel Moon — Part Two: Director’s Cut.
“We knew before shooting that it was not going to be [in Part One’s PG-13 cut]. I couldn’t really conceive of a PG-13 version of the scene that really got to the why of it, and so we cut it. It was always going to be in the R-rated version only, so we all made peace with that,” Snyder tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s incredibly important, and it really changes the tone of the movie in general.”
Dawn of the Dead, which was made under Stuber’s tenure at Universal, put Snyder on the film industry’s radar, but it was 2007’s 300 that launched him into the stratosphere. Co-written by Johnstad, the epic historical action film convinced Warners that Snyder was the right choice to adapt Frank Miller’s Watchmen. Snyder’s approach impressed Christopher Nolan so much that he recommended Snyder for his updated take on Superman. That became the Nolan-produced Man of Steel, starring Henry Cavill, and Snyder was soon given the tall order of using that film as a launchpad for DC’s own answer to the then-flourishing Marvel Cinematic Universe.
When looking back at the DCEU (also known as the Snyderverse) through today’s lens, it actually put up respectable box office numbers for a cinematic universe in its infancy. Of Snyder’s directorial and producorial efforts that took place during his overall tenure, Man of Steel (2013), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Suicide Squad (2016) and Wonder Woman (2017)averaged $779 million at the worldwide box office. That’s a figure that most studios would celebrate in today’s pandemic and strike-affected industry, but at the time, Warners’ regime had Marvel-sized expectations for their A-list characters, both critically and commercially.
Thus, Snyder was second guessed during the 2016 production of Justice League, and upon the tragic death of his daughter Autumn during 2017’s post-production, that’s when he decided to exit the film and DC universe altogether. Justice League was then retooled by the studio via extensive reshoots, resulting in a critical and commercial disappointment. Fan outcry led to the unprecedented #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement, as well as suicide prevention fundraising for AFSP in honor of Autumn Snyder, prompting former WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar and the previous Warners and DC regimes to green light Zack Snyder’s Justice League for release on HBO Max in 2021. The Snyder Cut ended up being the filmmaker’s most acclaimed DC film, but there were still squabbles behind the scenes over certain creative decisions.
Fast forward to present day, Warners and DC have completely new ownership and leadership, and they’ve extended some olive branches to Snyder, so much so that he’s currently developing a 300 prequel series for Warner Bros. TV.
“I didn’t think about it in those [“mending of fences”] terms. We were excited, and they seemed excited to work on what we would all consider classic IP at this point,” Snyder says with a laugh. “It’s a fun streaming concept that I think everybody is into … I like those guys over there. It’s all cool.”
Below, during a recent spoiler conversation with THR, Snyder also discusses the many additions and changes to Rebel Moon’s director’s cuts, before addressing Cavill’s recent cameo in the MCU.
Well, knowing what you had in mind from the start, how anxious have you been to get these unadulterated cuts out there?
Pretty anxious, I’d say, but pretty excited, too. If you’re going to make a space opera, it’s good to have the entire thing out there: the overture and the whole kit and caboodle. So I’ve been very excited, and the truth is that Netflix has been super supportive and incredibly kind and indulgent, if you will, with me doing these versions of the movies.
Director/writer/producer Zack Snyder and producer Deborah Snyder on the set of RebelMoon.
Clay Enos/Netflix
What was the workflow for the PG-13 cuts versus the R-rated cuts? Simultaneous? One at a time?
The roughing-in was all together, and then it was one at a time. So it was really making four movies, and that was a little bit exhausting. It was a little more work than I thought to do four movies altogether. It would’ve been interesting to make it all as one movie.
I asked Ed Skrein if you’d announce a PG-13 take versus an R-rated take on the day, but it didn’t really sound like that was the process. So how did you actually juggle the two?
There was a little bit of that, but with Ed’s character more than any, I just let him go. And then, through the editorial process, we would just cut out an F-bomb he dropped or something crazy he did.
Ed Skrein as Atticus Noble in RebelMoon
Clay Enos/Netflix
The Aris (Sky Yang) and Noble (Skrein) R-rated opening in Part One is a rather significant piece to exclude from the prior release, and it’s completely changed my perception of Aris. I used to view him as a chivalrous soldier who was sticking up for the innocent farmgirl (Charlotte Maggi’s Sam), but now we know it’s really about his Noble-executed family. Was this perhaps the toughest sequence to cut overall?
Yeah, it was, but we knew before shooting that it was not going to be [in Part One’s PG-13 cut]. I couldn’t really conceive of a PG-13 version of the scene that really got to the why of it, and so we cut it. It was always going to be in the R-rated version only, so we all made peace with that. But I agree a hundred percent. It’s incredibly important, and it really changes the tone of the movie in general. When the Imperium shows up to the Veldt village, the threat is much greater. The stakes are different in general.
Everything Aris does is recontextualized by that sequence.
Yeah, and there’s also the whole sequence where he and Sam talk inside [Kora’s] dropship. They have that whole conversation about how they need the guns: “You don’t understand.” So that whole bit is much different.
Yes, their retrieval of Kora’s (Sofia Boutella) dropship was included in Part Two’s PG-13 cut, but it’s now a part of Part One’sR-rated cut.
Yeah, it got moved to [Part Two’s] PG-13 cut.
Did you reposition it to Part Two’s PG-13 cut just so Part One’s PG-13 cut could stay closer to a two-hour runtime?
Yeah, we just said, “Let’s just cut that. It gets us two hours easier.”
Returning to the end of the opening sequence, we’re given a proper introduction to the High Scribes. They collect the teeth of Noble’s victims and adorn them around an image of Princess Issa. Are they telling themselves that Noble’s murders are all in honor of Princess Issa?
I always found that to be a perversion of the Issa myth. They’ve hijacked the Issa myth and now Issa’s death. In their case, Issa is dead, so they’ve hijacked her image as some sort of moral cover for the stuff that they’re doing.
Both director’s cuts ditch Jimmy’s (Anthony Hopkins) opening narration. Did you no longer need it since you had the time to show everything you needed to show?
The opening narration was a thing that the studio and I discussed after screening the movie. It was never really in the script. After screening the movie, we felt like it was a thing that people might need to be grounded a bit more in the movie. But, with the R-rated version, I was like, “No, you know where you are.”
Neither of your R-rated cuts shy away from intimacy and affection, and even the PG-13 cuts had plenty of affection between characters. I bring this up because there was a recent controversy involving Twisters’ decision to forego a concluding kiss between romantic leads. Do you have a sense of why intimacy, even just kissing, has all but disappeared from big movies?
Yeah, I don’t know. I’m a huge advocate. I like erotic content in motion pictures. I don’t understand, frankly, what would be the why of that. We’re sexual creatures, and that’s what we do. So, to me, that’s part of the human experience and equal to anything else. So I don’t have the answer to why that would be either included or excluded, but I’m a fan [of intimacy and affection], obviously.
How would you contrast Kora’s two sex scenes that take place toward the beginning of each R-rated cut?
The love scene with Den is transactional, and the love scene with Gunnar is much more intimate. There’s a level of shared intimacy that Kora and Gunnar achieve in a more committed relationship, and that is definitely different from someone who is just self-advocating for their own sexuality.
Apparently, you had to contend with an NC-17 rating for some period of time. Was Noble’s dalliance with tentacles the primary offender? Or was it something else?
We had to cut down our love scenes a little bit, but weirdly, the tentacles weren’t really an offender. A lot of it was Noble smashing Aris’ dad in the head and digging the brains out and stuff like that.
Kora meets the Rue Kali on the King’s Gaze. She not only powers their technology, but she can seemingly download a person’s memories. Does she shed a tear in response to each person’s pain and trauma?
Yeah, the Kalies cry for their pain, and they’re connected to the Issa energy. Eventually, you’d find out that they’re connected to Issa’s power and strength and that they come from another dimension. They’re like these warrior women that have been captured by the Imperium as a power source, but the Imperium has ignored or overlooked the actual power that they have. And, eventually, that’s going to come back to haunt them as they say. That’s the prophecy that you hear the Kali say to Kora in her little imagining: “One day, you will wake my sisters and their wrath will be my vengeance.” You can imagine that every dreadnought has a Kali inside of it.
Sofia Boutella as Kora in Rebel Moon — Part Two: Director’s Cut
Courtesy of Netflix
Yeah, when the Rue Kali says her sisters will seek vengeance on her behalf, I initially wondered if she was referring to Kora’s imminent destruction of her, or if she was referring to Balisarius’ assassination of the royal family. But overall enslavement is certainly a valid justification for revenge.
Yeah, she’s referring to the Kalies that are inside of all of the other dreadnoughts, and at some moment, they could be awoken from their enslavement and be quite a formidable opposition to the Imperium. They’re a bit of a Trojan horse scenario that the Imperium has not really kept their eye on, and that’s the long look for the Kalies.
Star Wars has long had a trope where Jedi or Rebels disguise themselves in Imperial garb, and while you do something similar here, I appreciate that you showed your work. You added a few more steps to where it’s not as easy as Star Wars has made it. Was that the very point you were trying to make?
Yeah, the point was that I wanted it to be credible that they could pull it off. Kora obviously has great knowledge of protocol and how the whole thing works, and they have these uniforms and a dropship. So we had all these elements that they could put together to do this, but I wanted it to be slightly technical.
Noble’s missing teeth weren’t shown in Part One’s PG-13 cut. Were you asked to withhold that since it’s a creepy note to conclude the first movie?
Yeah, that was more for the director’s cut anyway, because there’s a lot of teeth as a thematic. So we held that too, but it makes him a little crazier.
The Hawkshaws spying on the Rebel villagers was an interesting wrinkle that wasn’t in the PG-13 cuts, especially since their mission had to fail to explain how the villagers got the drop on Noble to start the Battle of Veldt.
Yeah, the Hawkshaws were deeply linked to Jimmy’s story, and when we started leaning Jimmy’s story out, they went with Jimmy.
The splatter of the lava ammunition and the resulting blood was oddly quite beautiful. Was there any way to account for that on the day? Or was it all post-engineering?
It was post-engineering. We’d done a lot of research that allowed us to do it both ways, frankly. There was a way to do some of it on the day, but I knew that if we did it completely as a post effect, then I could have R-rated and PG-13 versions of almost the exact same moments.
Jimmy (Performed by Dustin Ceithamer/Voiced by Anthony Hopkins) in Rebel Moon — Part One: Director’s Cut
Courtesy of Netflix
In Part One’s director’s cut, Jimmy helps Kora finish off the Imperium soldiers, and then he goes on this spiritual journey of sorts. Is Issa guiding him from afar whether he realizes it or not?
When you understand the Jimmies’ mythology — i.e., their warrior quest-knight aesthetic — they’re literally created as these protectors of Issa. Every Jimmy has the same motivation. If there are a thousand Jimmies, they all equally feel this religious fervor for her. So he’s just coming to terms with what it is to exist now without her. What does life mean without her and without its meaning? That’s what he’s searching for.
Part Two’s director’s cut concludes with Balisarius (Fra Fee) being robed and crowned for a public address, and then he salutes his vast army and weaponry. Kora and co. may have taken down one dreadnought, but they really have their work cut out for them now.
Yeah, that’s a hundred percent right. It’s like, “That was cute in a lot of ways. It was hard. But you guys barely pulled that off, so what’s step two? What is the move now?”
Fra Fee as Balisarius in Rebel Moon — Part Two: Director’s Cut
Courtesy of Netflix
Balisarius assassinated the royal family, so is that why he mostly communicates via the astral plane now? Is he trying to prevent his own assassination?
It’s probably that to some extent, but the astral plane would play a lot stronger in the future episodes. It really represents a lot of this idea of where they found the Kalies and how they use this other dimension to communicate. It unlocks a lot of different powers, and even though it can be casually used to communicate across long distances, it can be used to actually crack into other realities in its full sort of usage. So the way we’re experiencing it now is in its crudest form, but as we’d see it evolve, you’d see a much more robust and realized philosophical plane of existence that has a lot of transcendent abilities. It really becomes a big story MacGuffin, eventually.
In the brothel, we get a better look at a particular alien prostitute. She’s the bridge to the Army of the Dead universe, right?
Yeah, she’s a Xanadite. Queen Meeru, who the bartender references [when berating her], is famously the Princess of the Xanadites. So that’s an Army of the Dead reference. In Army’s Area 51, there’s a portal that takes you through this dimensional cut in time and space and lands you on Xanadu, basically.
As a child, Arthelais (Boutella) comforted herself with the myth of the first Princess Issa, who was regarded as the Redeemer. Is Kora the new Redeemer, or is it the current Princess Issa?
Well, we know that the princess is still alive, and she’s out there somewhere [with an original Jimmy named Bartholomew]. So the new Redeemer, once Issa is found, Kora would lift up Issa to this place where she could affect change, and that would become her primary role.
Sofia Boutella as Kora/Arthelais in RebelMoon
Clay Enos/Netflix
Did you change the color grading?
Yeah, I regraded both movies. It’s a weeks-long process to go through the entire movie and recolor it and do all the different power windows and looks. It was quite a big undertaking, but I always wanted it to be a little more pushed than the PG-13. It’s a little lookier than the PG-13.
Overall, what else was painful to hold back until now?
The baby spiders coming out of Harmada was a really important thing that we cut from the PG-13, and that was more because they thought it was too gruesome. But so much of it was by design. We designed the [PG-13 and R-rated] movies separately, so it’s tough to be like, “Oh, that was hard to cut.” Of course, I like all of it, but I love the Kali sequence. It’s really fun. The love scenes are also really important for Kora’s character and to bond her to Gunnar more intensely. There’s a lot of fun violence, and the stakes are raised. A lot more villagers get killed, sadly, but it’s important to show that it’s not a battle with no consequences. And Nemesis’ intro is much better.
Well, you shocked us all with a recent report involving a 300 prequel series. Does that suggest that the current regime at Warners is trying to mend fences?
I didn’t think about it in those terms. We were excited, and they seemed excited to work on what we would all consider classic IP at this point. (Laughs.) It’s a fun streaming concept that I think everybody is into, but I don’t think it’s some kind of … I like those guys over there. It’s all cool.
I assume you’ve heard about Henry Cavill’s recent cameo as Wolverine?
I haven’t seen it yet, but I did hear about it. Sounds fun.
Deadpool quipped that Marvel will treat Henry better than the studio down the street.
(Snyder grins.)
That mostly speaks to bygone regimes and five or six years of Henry’s prime being wasted in limbo. Of the many related sources of frustration, is that perfect casting being sidelined right near the top?
Well, Henry is an amazing Superman to me, obviously. I hired him. I wanted him to be Superman. So any coins left on the table are unfortunate, and in that way, it would be great to have more Henry. I always think you could have more Henry.
In a perfect world, what would you do next?
I’ve got a few things that I’m working on right now. They’re all very real. It’s not development kind of talk, but very real. So we’ll be making an announcement soon about what I’m doing next.
You once talked of doing a small project in South America.
I do have that script, and while that’s not it, I do want to do something small. I’m a little tapped out on the visual effects world right now. I love it, don’t get me wrong. I’m a huge fan, but I would love to do something a little bit more organic.
*** Rebel Moon — Part One: Director’s Cut and Rebel Moon — Part Two: Director’s Cut are now streaming on Netflix.
Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver recently arrived on Netflix, and its ending has viewers curious about the franchise’s future.
Serving as the continuation of Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, the second Rebel Moon movie sees a team of warriors, led by Kora (Sofia Boutella), prepare the moon of Vledt for an attack from the Imperium. The moon was once a humble farming planet until the Imperium, the brutal military of the oppressive Motherworld, arrived and shattered the peace as it demanded grain and custody of Kora, an ex-Imperium soldier. However, Kora and her skilled crew organize a rebellion, hoping to defy all odds and beat the Imperium’s forces.
Unfortunately, like the first movie, Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver received abysmal reviews from critics, earning a 15% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Both audiences and critics panned the film, giving it even worse reviews than its predecessor. Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire did earn stellar viewership on Netflix, though. Naturally, it was believed that if Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver could replicate those results, the franchise would have a good chance of continuing.
Is there going to be another Rebel Moon movie?
(image: Netflix)
As of now, Rebel Moon 3 has not been officially greenlit by Netflix. However, Snyder has already confirmed interest in making another movie. He has revealed that he plans to make four more movies, technically two movies, each divided into two parts. Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver ended on a major cliffhanger, paving the way for the story to continue. The next movie already has a plot, as the rebellion on Veldt inspires further planets throughout the galaxy to rebel and follow the warriors’ mission to find a character previously thought to be deceased.
So, there is room for the franchise to expand and interest from the cast and crew to return. However, it’s unclear if that will be enough to earn a greenlight from Netflix. As mentioned above, the poor reviews were a little concerning, but since streamers tend to care more about views, the franchise could continue regardless of its reception so long as it did well ratings-wise. The problem is that Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver also received less viewership than the original.
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Firedebuted with 54 million viewing hours during its first week, whereas the sequel debuted with 44 million views. Additionally, in its second week, The Scargiver dropped to 38 million views, going from the top of Netflix’s U.S. Top 10 Movies chart to seventh place. As of now, the title has dropped entirely from the U.S. movies chart.
Given that the sequel received worse reviews and fewer views than the original, it does raise the concern that reception will further deteriorate with additional movies. However, Snyder is still preparing to release R-rated director’s cuts of both films on Netflix, which could bring in additional views. The movies may get better reviews, as his director’s cut of Justice League did. So, it’s too early to say whether Rebel Moon 3 will or won’t happen. Although things don’t look good, the director’s cuts could change things up.
(featured image: Netflix)
The Mary Sue is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more
Do you still think Sucker Punchwas just shy of being a truly great work? If so, Zack Snyder agrees with you—and he’s ready to make its Snyder Cut a reality.
Spoilers of the Week April 11-15
Talking to Empire earlier in the week, the director was asked about what he’d change from any of his movies. (Other than the one he already did that with, of couse.) He picked his 2011 action flick, which he says “never really got finished correctly. […] If I had the chance, I would fix that movie.” What’s stopping him from whipping up those changes is, accoring to him, both the resources and explicit permission to do it.
“They have to let me put it together,” he explained, presumably referring to Warner Bros. or Legendary Pictures. “I have the footage already shot. […] We ask every now and then, [and] we have to ask again. I think there has to be a window when no one’s got the movie.” He further implied that fans could help get the ball rolling faster, saying “if they want to start a campaign, that’s alright.”
Sucker Punch originally released in 2011 and starred Emily Browing as Babydoll, who gets sent to a mental hospital after accidentally shooting her sister while trying to fight off her abusive stepfather. Upon learning she’ll be lobotomized, Babydoll and her fellow patients—played by Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish, and Jamie Chung—enter a number of fantasy worlds to find items that’ll help them escape in the real world. With negative reviews and an $89.8 million box office (on an $82M budget), it wasn’t really well-liked at the time, not helped by the flak it caught for its elevator pitch of girls fantasizing about killing monsters with swords and guns as they do erotic dances IRL.
Times have changed, though, and it’s possible the film would be better (or just more interesting?) if it’s been retooled. But would fans want to will that one into existence like they did with Justice League? That may be a little harder to determmine, since it’s yet to receive a widespread reappraisal like other movies lately.
Rebel Moon made its highly anticipated debut this week on Netflix. Now, it’s time to look at Zack Snyder’s filmography and determine where his sci-fi extravaganza ranks.
10) Sucker Punch (2011)
The only out-and-out misfire in Snyder’s career remains 2011’s trippy Sucker Punch — and that may be due to a theatrical cut that eschews a lot of essential details in favor of a swift (by Snyder standards) run time. At least, that’s the word on the street. There’s a lot to admire here, from the eye-popping production design to the video game-esque series of missions our heroines must complete to escape their physical and mental prisons. Unfortunately, it all becomes a little too repetitive by the third act.
No matter. A handful of colorful set pieces and a few strong performances by Emily Browning, Jena Malone, and Abbie Cornish, at the very least, make Sucker Punch watchable. I think Snyder got a little too cute with this one and turned what could have been a kick-ass action picture into a convoluted mind trip — though I’ll happily watch a Director’s Cut should it ever become available.
9) Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (2010)
Legends of the Guardians is a strange beast — quite literally.
The animation is superb, and Snyder pushes the PG rating for all it’s worth, conjuring some truly electrifying set pieces that pop with his patented slow-mo flourishes. But … owls? Of the bajillion books out there worthy of adaptations, why choose one about owls? As much as I admire Snyder’s ambitious approach, I can’t get over the fact that I’m watching an overtly serious film about warrior owls. If you can get over that stigma, though, Legends of the Guardians is a rollicking animated thrill ride.
8) Army of the Dead (2021)
Amy of the Dead was an extreme case of false advertising. The ads promised a rip-roaring, action-packed heist thriller, prominently showcasing the main cast—led by Dave Bautista, Ana de la Reguera, Ella Purnell, Matthias Schweighöfer, and Omari Hardwick—standing back-to-back, Avengers-style, blasting waves of zombies in the middle of Las Vegas. The actual film is a more somber, muted affair with a dramatic father/daughter storyline as the anchor. It’s not bad, but certainly not what any of us expected.
With my expectations firmly on the back burner, I can enjoy Army of the Dead for what it is. Not all of it works, but Snyder’s flick stands apart from others of its ilk. His zombies aren’t just walking-eating machines, but an intelligent hoard — created by the world’s most ill-timed blowjob — led by a King and Queen, capable of mass destruction but content to remain in Vegas so long as the outside world leaves them the hell alone. Into this nightmare falls Bautista’s gang, a struggling band of misfits in dire need of a positive exercise in self-fulfillment. They’re tasked with taking a pile of cash from a casino before the US military blows Vegas sky high and must navigate the zombie-infested city without pissing off the locals.
7) Watchmen (2009)
There’s so much to admire in Zack Snyder’s Watchmen, from that astonishing opening sequence to the impressive visuals and slavish devotion to Alan Moore’s acclaimed graphic novel. It’s a shame when the entire production all but crumbles under its massive weight in the third act. Visually, the film is all aces — it looks like a comic book come to life! — has a knack for balancing dark, pulpy character drama with epic action.
Unfortunately, the various parts don’t fully come together. Snyder tries to craft a straightforward adaptation of Moore’s novel while delivering a kick-ass superhero epic. Ultimately, the film doesn’t fulfill either objective and frustrates more than delights. I still think it’s one of the most ambitious blockbusters ever produced—a dark, gritty, violent R-rated comic book drama packed with sex, mature themes, and complex characters. That it works at all is a miracle.
6) Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire (2023)
Watching Rebel Moon, I was reminded of great B-movies like Highlander, Flash Gordon, Battle Beyond the Stars, Beastmaster, and (to some extent) The Never Ending Story — pictures too outlandish and silly for general audiences that eventually garnered a cult following. Rebel Moon seems destined for that trajectory, as I’m sure its mix of pulpy action and super serious melodrama will turn off most but delight those willing to let go and enjoy the ride.
Ostensibly a shameless retelling of The Seven Samurai, Rebel Moon follows army deserter Kora (Sofia Boutella) and peaceful farmer Gunnar (Michiel Huisman) as they assemble a force capable of protecting a small town from the sneering Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein). A series of familiar troupes refurbished with Snyder’s visual zeal follows. There’s nothing here you haven’t seen before, but that doesn’t make Rebel Moon any less enjoyable. Aside from a confusing backstory — something about a slain king? — it’s remarkable how straightforward the plot is.
Rebel Moon didn’t blow me away the way I hoped it would, but I was captivated from start to finish and excited to see A) the R-rated Director’s Cut and B) the second part, which hits Netflix in April 2024. As constructed, this PG-13 cut feels incomplete, with key characters — notably Djimon Hounsou’s General Titus — tossed aside to achieve a tighter runtime.
5) 300 (2006)
Snyder’s claim to fame arrived with 2006’s ultra-violent adaptation of Frank Miller and Lynn Varley’s comic series 300. The film is a fictionalized retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae, where 300 Spartans, led by King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), faced overwhelming odds against the massive Persian army led by King Xerxes I.
Snyder lovingly reproduces the comic, including the Spartans’ impressive six packs, crafting eye-popping visuals and violent set pieces ripe with slow motion and buckets of digital blood. You’ll be surprised at how far he stretches the modest $65M budget. As typical, Snyder doesn’t hold back, delivering wild sex scenes, heavy adult content, and the type of bizarro violence that would ultimately define his career, for better or worse.
4) Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
After all these years, I still don’t get the hate for BvS. Sure, the plot is needlessly convoluted, and Snyder’s aggressively dark tone gets tiresome. Still, Snyder delivers a complex deconstruction of the superhero mythos that builds towards a rousing finale chock full of the type of large-scale action I dreamed about as a kid. His examination of Batman (Ben Affleck) as a disillusioned warrior in dire need of a positive jolt is unique. At the same time, his iteration of Superman (Henry Cavill), himself a hero seeking purpose in a world that fears him, deserves more props than it receives — if only because he gives the character a mythical, worthwhile journey to traverse. When these two titans battle, there are genuine stakes.
Snyder approaches his heroes with a straight face. Unlike Marvel, he’s not embarrassed by these god-like beings. There are no quippy one-liners, pratfalls, or gags. Every action carries a consequence.
While the screenplay — penned by Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer — could have been a little more straightforward, the overarching narrative trumps the negatives. In lesser hands, BvS could have been a silly, cynical cash grab. In Snyder’s hands, it’s an ambitious, sometimes overwhelming, blockbuster that never fails to entertain.
3) Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Snyder’s first foray into the zombie genre resulted in a terrific combination of horror and dark comedy, thanks to James Gunn’s terrific screenplay. The story follows a group of survivors, led by Sarah Polley’s Ana, as they attempt to navigate a zombie apocalypse from within the confines of an abandoned shopping mall. Snyder delivers a motley crew of distinct characters played by Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Ty Burrell, and Mekhi Phifer, among others, and tosses them into a series of wild escapades, each more outlandish than the next. The results aren’t subtle and often coated with stomach-churning gore, but few zombie films entertain like Dawn of the Dead — a dazzling thriller that ups the ante in more ways than one.
2) Man of Steel (2013)
Superman (Henry Cavill) is about as far removed from Christopher Reeve as a quiet library from a rock concert. Both achieve their respective visions, but Snyder’s iteration is far more complex, repurposing the Man of Steel as a world-traveling loner afraid to unveil his extraordinary powers out of fear of the consequences they will bring. He grapples with the ideologies of his two fathers. Jor-El (Russell Crowe) believes his son can inspire hope and use his powers to improve humanity. Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner) doesn’t think the world is ready for a superman and urges his son to conceal himself until the right moment. It’s an exciting examination of two different perspectives that ultimately have the same goal to save the world.
Viewers willing to embrace Snyder’s vision will enjoy a unique and ambitious superhero experience that doesn’t adhere to comic book conventions. Even at its worst — that goofy tornado scene notwithstanding — Man of Steel soars higher than most comic book films and delivers the kind of impressive disaster epic that defined Hollywood in the 1970s.
1) Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)
Zack Snyder’s Justice League is big, bold, full of heart, and incredible action. WB made a huge mistake abandoning Snyder’s vision. While his pictures may not have achieved Marvel-levels of success, audiences would have embraced Justice League enough to warrant a continuation of the saga.
The League is a ragtag group of fallen/disillusioned warriors that come together to stop an invading threat from global annihilation. Batman feels remorse for the hand he played in Superman’s death and traverses the world in search of means to stop Steppenwolf and Darkseid’s attack. His quest leads to Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg dealing with personal tragedy/flaws. Mostly, they struggle to live up to their mantras as protectors of the realm but eventually achieve something extraordinary with the help of their newfound friends.
No, ZSJL isn’t perfect. A few plot points remain underdeveloped, but Snyder’s grand design overpowers the flaws and results in a rousing superhero epic.
Rebel Moon director Zack Snyder has revealed which four movies are his absolute favorite, and they span a wide range of genres.
Letterboxd asked the filmmaker his four favorite movies and posted a video to Twitter of him answering the question. Snyder revealed that his four favorite movies are Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, All That Jazz, Excalibur, and Blue Velvet.
You can see Snyder list the movies in the video below:
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope was directed by George Lucas and came out in 1977, while All That Jazz was released in 1979 and was directed by Bob Fosse. Excalibur was directed by John Boorman and released in 1981, while Blue Velvet came out in 1986 and was helmed by David Lynch.
What is Rebel Moon about?
“A peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy is threatened by the armies of a tyrannical regent named Balisarius,” reads the film’s synopsis. “The desperate civilians dispatch Kora, a young woman who has a mysterious past, to seek out warriors from nearby planets to help them challenge the regent.”
Rebel Moon – Part One is now playing in limited theaters and is also available to stream on Netflix.
From his critically maligned but fan-favorite Sucker Punch to his infamous internet darling “Snyder Cut” of 2017’s Justice League, Zack Snyder is no stranger to drumming up discourse whenever one of his films nears release. His latest effort for Netflix, Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire, has already sparked discussions of an R-rated, three-hour director’s cut to give his fans an alternate taste before Rebel Moon — Part Two hits the streaming platform early next year. But while Snyder may do his best to invent a dark, gripping universe to engross viewers, Rebel Moon is a limp, soulless regurgitation of tropes stolen from much more formidable films.
The Week In Games: High On Witchcraft
Written, directed, produced, and shot by Snyder, Rebel Moon follows Kora (Sofia Boutella), a battle-hardened soldier with a tragic past. Though she’s attempting to live a low-profile life on a peaceful farming colony, Kora is forced to once again take up the mantle of warrior when the Motherworld sends a military contingent led by the brutal Admiral Noble (Ed Skrein) to occupy her new home. With the help of a humble farmer (Michiel Huisman) Kora sets off on a galaxy-spanning adventure to recruit a ragtag group of fighters to defend her homeland.
Attempting to establish an original, engrossing science-fiction world is no small task, even for the most adept of writers, and it’s painfully clear that Snyder took heavy aesthetic and stylistic notes from genre classics like Star Wars and Dune, without understanding the story and emotional beats that made those aforementioned franchises so beloved. Certainly, there’s all manner of science-fiction spectacle in Rebel Moon to gawk at: the characters are all dressed in tattered greyscale robes, wielding retrofuturist weapons and talking about the “Motherworld” and the “Imperium.”
But while every element of production design, costuming, and worldbuilding is certainly specific, none of them are inspired or purposeful. Instead, Rebel Moon’s stylistic sensibilities feel like Snyder simply tossed all the sci-fi greats into a blender and called it a day. Extensive attention is paid to plotting out lore and history, but Snyder forgets to flesh out the characters that populate his meticulously detailed universe.
Aside from Kora, whose tragic backstory and brutal upbringing are delivered entirely through clunky monologues of exposition that bleed into extensive flashback sequences, the rest of Rebel Moon’s sizable ensemble castare eacg allotted five minutes of dialogue, if that. Kora and her crew flit to a new planet, are treated to a dazzling display of their new ally’s combat prowess, given the CliffsNotes version of their tragic backstory (is there any other kind?), and then that character simply falls in among the ranks, never to be examined or explored with any real intentionality again.
As for Kora herself, Boutella brings the customary strength and stoicism expected of a YA dystopian protagonist with none of the heart or passion. Constantly glowering out from underneath her dark crop of hair, Kora is a painfully uninteresting hero whose stoicism is certainly understandable given her history, but whose personality could not make for a more tepid protagonist. Though she’s plenty ferocious in combat, Kora is detached and distant when not embroiled in a fight, giving the entire film a remote, inaccessible emotional core. At two hours and 15 minutes, Rebel Moon is a laborious moviegoing experience—why should the audience care about the film’s events when the protagonist herself barely seems to?
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire | Official Trailer | Netflix
Rebel Moon’s lack of interest in exploring its own characters is made all the more frustrating by the cruel, visceral nature of its villains—while we don’t get much personality from Kora, Gunnar, and the other wannabe heroes, we are treated to several extended sequences that revel in the cruelty and violence of the Imperium. The vaguely fascist ruling faction is clearly an underbaked stand-in for Star Wars’ Empire, but Snyder mistakes onscreen brutality for effective writing. The film’s first act subjects viewers to an extended sequence of Imperium soldiers attempting to rape a villager, a scene that serves no other purpose than making explicitly clear to the audience that the authoritarian military occupiers are, in fact, bad guys.
The world Snyder has created is a cold, brutal one, utterly lacking in any kind of charm, whimsy, or excitement. The closest Rebel Moon ever comes to eliciting any kind of emotional response is during the action-packed, slo-mo heavy combat sequences. Stories like Star Wars and Dune soar by using far-fetched worlds and fantastical settings to interrogate relatable, deeply human ideas. Rebel Moon, on the other hand,trades in the aesthetic trappings of those classics without making the effort to engage on any emotional or philosophical level.
Though Rebel Moon ends on a relative cliffhanger with the promise of a sequel on the horizon, it’s difficult to imagine why one would want to subject themselves to another two hours in this soulless slog of a universe. Certainly, Snyder is a master of his particular brand of highly stylized action sequences, but the sheer lack of emotional stakes and memorable characters renders Rebel Moon toothless.
Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child Of Fire begins streaming on Netflix December 21.
Zack Snyder, Film director and guy-who-spells-Zack-correctly, is out promoting his new Netflix film, Rebel Moon. But because he’s talked about Epic’s popular battle royale shooter Fortnite in the past, people keep asking him about the game and recently, someone wondered if he would be willing to direct a movie based on the franchise. According to Snyder, “of course” he would.
Dead By Daylight Devs’ New Game Is Fortnite Meets Doom
Rebel Moon is a gritty, space-adventure that is poised to set up a larger franchise for Netflix. Let’s check out what the critics are saying about Snyder’s newest movie…oh…oh boy…ouch…well…uh… actually, let’s talk about something else and not that seemingly horrible film. Instead, Snyder has some thoughts on the world of Fortnite and making a live-action movie based on the ever-expanding free-to-play game he’s been enjoying for years.
As spotted by IGN, during a December 15 interview with Etalk, the film director behind Man of Steel, 300 and that Dawn of the Dead remake where the zombies run was asked if he would ever “want to combine” his two passions for filmmaking and playing Fortnite.
“I mean, of course,” Snyder quickly replied. He further added that he was trying hard to get skins based on Rebel Moon added to Fortnite, a game that is famous for its many brand crossovers. That didn’t happen, but Snyder doesn’t seem bitter about it and is still into the Fortnite universe.
“Look, Fortnite is an amazing world, and it is an amazing distraction for me,” Snyder said. “It’s really cool, and the alchemy that they’ve created there is really unique. When I started playing it I thought I knew what it was and then it was something entirely different.”
When playfully pushed by the interviewer about his vague answer, Snyder added: “You definitely don’t know. You definitely can never say never. That’s my mantra in this business.”
If Zack Snyder does end up making a Fortnite film, I will expect a big starring role for Rick and Morty’s Mr. Meeseeks as that is, according to the filmmaker, the main skin he uses when playing the game. What a movie that will be.
In 2021’s zombie heist thriller Army of the Dead, that sneaky Zack Snyder tricked us into believing he had rediscovered his sense of humor, a keen understanding of the fact that trashy fun and gory action mayhem need not be mutually exclusive. But just seconds into the leaden sci-fi saga Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire, it’s clear the director is back to indulging his worst tendency for self-serious bombast. That opening features the sonorous voice of Anthony Hopkins droning away over a gloomy spacescape: “On the Motherworld, blah, blah, blah…” It’s a glop of garbled narrative foundation that makes the opening text crawl on the original Star Wars look like a haiku.
The epochal George Lucas creation that spawned a billion Disney spinoffs appears to be very much on Snyder’s mind in this major undertaking for Netflix, with a reported budget for the two-parter of $165 million. The project has been kicking around in the director’s head for decades, which might explain how so much Star Wars mythology got tangled up in it, not to mention Dune, Avatar and even a dollop of Game of Thrones.
Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire
The Bottom Line
Not kidding, it’s just part one.
Release date: Friday, Dec. 22 Cast: Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Ed Skrein, Michiel Huisman, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Charlie Hunnam, Anthony Hopkins, Staz Nair, Cleopatra Coleman Director: Zack Snyder Screenwriters: Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, Shay Hatten
Rated PG-13,
2 hours 13 minutes
This is a derivative crazy-quilt endeavor loaded with enough plot to plug up a black hole but only the most feebly drawn characters to do the work. Its theme of resistance against oppression is too basic to carry much weight.
In case you forgot this is the guy who redefined gay soft-core porn with the big, dumb slab of Ancient Greek battle pulp, 300, almost everyone here has killer abs. One notable exception is the disgusting jowly blob who hits on Michiel Huisman’s hot farmer Gunnar in a spaceport dive bar full of mercenaries, thugs and freaks, which might invite charges of homophobia if anyone were silly enough to take Rebel Moon seriously.
Then there’s the head-clobbering obviousness of a fascist militia enforcing the merciless rule of the Motherworld, controlled since the slaughter of the king by the power-hungry Regent Balisarius (Fra Fee). His emissary is the vicious — wait for it — Admiral Noble (Ed Skrein), a sinewy sadist sporting Bolshevik-style outerwear over Nazi-chic black and white, who favors bashing his victims’ skulls in with a staff made from the bone of some ancient creature.
Snyder never met a superhero team roundup he didn’t love, and although he’s put aside capes and spandex for rugged galactic garb, the screenplay he co-wrote with Kurt Johnstad and Shay Hatten plays like the result of someone feeding Seven Samurai and Star Wars into AI scriptwriting software.
The warrior in charge of recruiting insurgents to go up against Noble’s army is Kora (Sofia Boutella), a brooding stranger taken in by a peaceful farming community after crash-landing on the remote moon Veldt. Village chief Sindri (Corey Stoll in an unfortunate beaded beard) has barely finished urging everyone to honor the harvest gods with rabid lovemaking, or “thrusting of hips” as he lustily calls it, when Noble’s hulking warships appear in the sky.
The Motherworld contingent descends to discuss the supply of grain for their underfed armies, their negotiations turning nasty as Noble horrifies the assembled farmers with an act of violence and clarifies his demands: “It’s simple. I want everything.”
He leaves behind a goon squad to take charge of the crops, and while Kora is preparing to flee, she hears the screams of sweet young villager Sam (Charlotte Maggi) being manhandled. “I’ll turn her from a farm girl to a whore!” declares an especially skeevy brute. In one of the worst bits of rape dialogue in recent memory, the senior officer snatches Sam away from that a-hole underling, bellowing, “I’ll split this sapling myself, and then you can have her. Then you can all have her, mwahahahah!” It’s in moments like this that Snyder confuses menacing with gross.
Luckily, Kora is handy enough with axe, guns, fists and feet to spare Sam, before convincing the farmers that they’re going to have to learn the art of war. She takes off with Gunnar, who has contacts in the resistance, looking to enlist skilled fighters to train the villagers. En route, she fills in the details of her past for him: “I’m only telling you this so you know who I am.” No, sorry, girl, you’re only telling him this because the audience requires that giant exposition dump to make sense of this nonsense.
Their first connection is with shady pilot Han Solo, who agrees to transport them on the Millennium Falcon. Oops, sorry, I mean bounty hunter Kai (Charlie Hunnam), who whisks them off on his freighter. Hopping from one planetary outpost to another, Kora and Gunnar win over formidable warriors to help their cause. Among them is an ‘80s calendar model, or something, Tarak (Staz Nair); a lethal swordswoman with fire blades for arms, Nemesis (Doona Bae); a fallen general, Titus (Djimon Hounsou); and an insurgent leader, Darrian Bloodaxe (Ray Fisher), who heads a rebel army fighting the Motherworld with his sister Devra (Cleopatra Coleman).
Along the way, Snyder weaves in plenty of outré sci-fi weirdness, which might seem original if you’re new to the genre. There’s a yucky talking bug right out of Naked Lunch; a spiderwoman (Jena Malone) who’s like a vengeful upgrade on Greek mythology’s Arachne, as seen in the ‘90s Hercules series; and a griffin-like winged beast called a Bennu, which creature whisperer Tarak gets to break in, recalling similar scenes with the Hippogriff in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban or the leonopteryx in Avatar. Some jolts of creepiness seem to have been tossed in as random arcana without explanation, notably the leech-like tentacles Noble plugs into his torso for kicks at bath time.
Will the fanboys go for all this elaborate world-building, inevitably leading to a deadly faceoff on the insurgents’ way home to Veldt? Hard to say. I for one won’t be sorry never to see poor old King Levitica again; he’s a peace-loving monkish ruler with flowing robes and a head like a frozen turkey raised too close to a nuclear reactor. Do aliens really have to look this stupid?
Action scenes are serviceable enough but rarely exciting, pumped up with Snyder’s usual tool kit of speed-ramping and slo-mo. But there’s a grimy aesthetic to the movie that becomes ugly and tiresome (the director took on the DP role himself), and the episodic plotting seldom builds enough steam to stop you thinking about other things, like if there’s no reference to these characters ever having lived on Earth, why does Kai have a thick Irish brogue? And beyond global representation, what’s with the whole hodgepodge of accents anyway — British, Australian, South African, etc.?
Boutella, who reportedly did the majority of her own stunts, acquits herself capably, acing the fight choreography and looking cool in a hooded cloak. Hunnam also gets to show some spark and Bae certainly looks commanding in her all-black kumdo suit. But there’s not much scope for the actors to do anything of interest beyond scowl, fight or look anxious.
At least Hopkins got out of it with only voice duties as Jimmy, an android soldier whose fighting days ended with the death of the king. His once regal armor is reduced to a battered tin-can shell and his military programming has given way to contemplative human feelings. When young Sam recognizes the robot’s kindness early on and crowns him with flowers, it sparks Jimmy’s final rejection of Motherworld doctrine.
The droid’s rogue appearance at the end of the film — having gone full animal-cult with a set of antlers, seriously — hints at a more active role in Part Two: The Scargiver, due in April. For anyone not already too scarred to check back in, that is.
Zack Snyder is one of the most celebrated filmmakers in the industry who has created a cult classic following all around the globe. After his DCEU vision was discarded by Warner Bros., the filmmaker made his own way as he will be coming with another franchise, Rebel Moon. The hotly anticipated movie is already set to be released on Netflix, and the filmmaker recently shared his favorite flick of the year, 2023. While there have been many movies that were blockbuster hits, here is the movie that the Justice League director liked the most.
Zack Snyder reveals his favorite movie of the year
The filmmaker made his choice very clear when he was asked to select his favorite movie of the year and we can say that he has got a great taste. During the promotions of his upcoming Netflix movie, Rebel Moon, Zack Snyder spoke with Albert Laro on the red carpet, fielding some rapid-fire questions with swift responses. The filmmaker shared that his favorite film of 2023 is none other than Christopher Nolan’s atomic epic, Oppenheimer.
The first question quizzed the director on the last film he saw, which he named the 1974 classic Chinatown. Later, Zack Snyder was asked to name his favorite film of 2023, and without hesitation, he said it would be Oppenheimer. This is not a huge surprise as both the filmmakers have been friends in the DCEU movies. Interestingly, the director isn’t alone in this opinion, as IMDb also declared Oppenheimer to be the year’s best movie.
After directing DCEU movies such as Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Justice League, Snyder is now collaborating with Netflix on an assortment of projects, including Rebel Moon. The streaming giant is set to unleash the first half of Zack Snyder’s two-part sci-fi epic, Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire on Netflix at 7 PM PT on December 21, 2023. The second installment of the same universe, Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver, will follow on April 19, 2024.
Zack Snyder knew he was going to be the butt of a “Barbie” joke well before the blockbuster comedy opened in theaters from Warner Bros. In a new interview with Men’s Health, the “Rebel Moon” director revealed Warner Bros.’ film co-chief Michael DeLuca informed his wife and producer partner Deborah Snyder earlier this year about the joke and the studio’s intention to keep it in the film’s final cut.
The Snyder Cut joke in “Barbie” arrives during a critical moment in the film. Ryan Gosling’s Ken has introduced Barbie Land to the patriarchy, brainwashing the once-independent Barbies into existing solely to serve the Kens. America Ferrara gives an impassioned, feminist speech that lifts the spell, prompting a Barbie played by Alexandra Shipp to describe her time being under the patriarchy as the following: “It’s like I’ve been in a dream where I was really invested in the ‘Zack Snyder Cut of Justice League.’”
“They gave us a heads-up,” Snyder said. “And he said, ‘Hey, there’s a reference to ‘Justice League’ in the movie. It’s cool and whatever, I hope you guys understand, we think it’s awesome.’”
“I thought [‘Barbie’] was great,” Snyder added. “And I think the joke is pretty good.”
Snyder agreed “a hundred percent” that the joke was more of a crack at the fandom than a personal dig at him. Nonetheless, that his fandom could become such a pop culture staple to become a joke in a major Hollywood tentpole left Snyder a bit gob-smacked.
“The thing that I said to Debbie is—the thing that you need to take a second and think about is that your name is so seamlessly sewed together with a pop-culture phenomenon so big it can exist as a joke in a movie about Barbie,” Snyder said. “That’s pretty insane. You just need to step back for a second and go like, ‘Whoa, what did we do? What happened? How is that a thing?’”
The Snyder Cut joke references the toxic fandom that surrounds the director, most evidently seen in the campaign for Warner Bros. to restore the director’s cut of “Justice League” after he left the project and Joss Whedon was brought in to oversee reshoots and overhaul the film’s tone. “Barbie” is also a Warner Bros. release, which is why the joke took many moviegoers by surprise.
“I didn’t even really realize that,” Gerwig told ComicBook.com after “Barbie” opened about the joke potentially being divisive among Snyder fans. “I didn’t even…Because I don’t have a dog in this fight, I didn’t even really know. I knew it was a thing. I don’t know the contours of all the ins and outs. But it’s the kind of thing that I vaguely know. But I think that was the thing, that it was like if [Writer Barbie] had a vague knowledge of, and then all of a sudden in a certain state, it really meant a lot to her, and then it went away.”
Snyder told Men’s Health that he “sometimes” feels misunderstood, adding, “So you’re like, ‘Oh, Snyder’s a fucking male, toxic masculine fuck.’ I have fucking nail polish on my fucking thumbs, for God’s sake.”
“Barbie” is now available to rent or purchase on VOD and digital platforms. The movie begins streaming exclusively on Max starting Dec. 15. Snyder is back on screens later this month with the first installment of his new space opera “Rebel Moon,” streaming Dec. 22 on Netflix.
The makers of the highly anticipated sci-fantasy epic Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire have unveiled the striking character posters featuring the ensemble cast. Directed by Zack Snyder, this intense film features Sofia Boutella as Kora, Ed Skrein as Admiral Noble, Michiel Huisman as Gunnar, Charlie Hunnam as Kai, Doona Bae as Nemesis, Djimon Hounsou as Titus, Staz Nair as Tarak, E. Duffy as Milius, Cleopatra Coleman as Devra Bloodaxe, Ray Fisher as Darrian Bloodaxe, Fra Fee as Belisarius, and Anthony Hopkins voicing the ancient, mechanised protector Jimmy.
Rebel Moon Part One: A Child Of Fire is a sci-fi series that promises an immersive experience with stunning visuals and a mythologically rich narrative. The nerve-wracking adventure follows an exceptional team of rebels as they fight to save a peaceful settlement from the tyrannical forces of the Motherworld. The highly anticipated film is set to release on August 11, 2024.
Zack Snyder is getting the gang together in the new trailer for Rebel Moon, his Netflix space opera that’s like Star Wars meets The Magnificent Seven.
In the feature, a mysterious woman named Kora (Sofia Boutella), forms a ragtag team in order to defend a peaceful farming village from nefarious imperialists who want to take their food and starve them out.
Per the logline, Kora is “tasked with finding fighters who would risk their lives to defend the people of Veldt, Kora and Gunnar (Michiel Huisman), a tenderhearted farmer naive in the realities of war, journey to different worlds in search of the Bloodaxes, and assemble a small band of warriors who share a common need for redemption along the way: Kai (Charlie Hunnam), a pilot and gun for hire; General Titus (Djimon Hounsou), a legendary commander; Nemesis (Doona Bae), a master swordswoman; Tarak (Staz Nair), a captive with a regal past; and Milius (E. Duffy), a resistance fighter.”
“I am a child of war,” Boutella’s protagonist says about halfway through the three-minute trailer. “I’ll find warriors to fight with us.”
The cast also includes Ray Fisher, Fra Fee, Ed Skrein, Cleopatra Coleman and Anthony Hopkins, who voice stars as a robot.
Rebel Moon is part of a two-part story. A Child of Fire arrives Dec. 22, while part two, titled The Scargiver, hits on April 19, 2024.
Snyder initially developed the project as a potential Star Wars feature years ago, before shifting to make it an original IP.
“This is me growing up as an Akira Kurosawa fan, a Star Wars fan,” Snyder told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021. “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.”
After over three years since it was announced that Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead franchise would be getting an animated spin-off series, Snyder finally provided an update regarding the project’s current status. Speaking with Total Film, the filmmaker confirmed that Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas has officially been scrapped despite already completing voice recordings and scripts for it.
“We did all the scripts and the animatics, and all the voices are recorded. So you could watch it, even in its crazy animatic form – you can watch the whole run,” Snyder said.
What was Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas supposed to be about?
Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas was originally supposed to chronicle the origin story of Scott (Dave Bautista) and his rescue crew during the initial fall of Vegas as they confront the mysterious source of the zombie outbreak. Snyder was going to direct two episodes of the anime series, while Jay Oliva (Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and upcoming Netflix Original Anime Series Trese) signed on to showrun and direct.
The series was executive produced by Deborah Snyder, Zack Snyder, Wesley Coller (The Stone Quarry), Jay Olivia, and Shay Hatten. Bautista, Ana de la Reguera, Tig Notaro, Omari Hardwick, and Ella Purnell were actually going to reprise their roles from 2021’s Army of the Dead movie in the anime series. Joe Manganiello, Christian Slater, Harry Lennix, Ross Butler, Anya Chalotra, Vanessa Hudgens, Yetide Badaki, Christina Wren, Monica Barbaro, and Nolan North were also previously cast for the project.
Jena Malone‘s alien spider-warrior generates a curious mix of unsettling feelings in the new teaser trailer for Rebel Moon. She is one of the few major characters from Zack Snyder‘s space epic whose identity has remained a secret ever since the filmmaker revealed most of the other players in an exclusive Vanity Fair first look earlier this summer. She’s also, inarguably, the weirdest and creepiest of the bunch.
There’s something mesmerizing about the elegant design of Malone’s Harmada, a giant arachnoid whose allegiance in this far-flung galaxy isn’t immediately clear. Is she friend, foe, or something in between? Snyder himself shares some exclusive new insights into who—and what—Harmada is, and where she turns up in Rebel Moon.
The new teaser also reveals what each part of this two-part saga will be subtitled, in addition to confirming when the second half will make its debut. (Though there’s still no word on when Snyder’s plan for a harder-edged R-rated—or perhaps unrated—version will be released as well.) The first chapter of Rebel Moon is titled A Child of Fire; it will hit Netflix on Dec. 22. The second half will be called The Scargiver and will debut on the streaming service four months later, on April 14, 2024. “The Scargiver” is revealed in the trailer to be a reference to Sofia Boutella‘s fugitive Kora, who helps set off the galactic rebellion when the farming moon Veldt, where she has been hiding from the Imperium, is conquered by the armies of that tyrannical government.
Malone’s spider-queen Harmada turns up in the story when Kora ventures off-world in search of a team of specialist warriors to help fortify her peaceful little village’s uprising. “Kora used to be in the Imperium, and she’s like, ‘Guys, this ends badly for everybody,’” Snyder tells Vanity Fair.
Kora and her pacifist farmer friend Gunnar (Michiel Huisman, of Game of Thrones) hire a starship pilot named Kai (Sons of Anarchy’s Charlie Hunnam) to travel with them around the galaxy to recruit their menagerie of fighters. One of these worlds is an urban, industrialized world called Daggus.
“Daggus is a mining colony, where there’s a cobalt mine, and the sort of space cobalt that we use is highly treasured by the Imperium,” Snyder explains. “So, the deal that Daggus has made with the Imperium makes it kind of a freelance company of the mother world. It’s like Standard Oil or something.”
The mean streets of Daggus has its own cyborg protector known as Nemesis (South Korean actor DoonaBae), who wields twin fire swords. “There’s not a huge military presence there because it’s part of the mother world, so Nemesis is able to navigate the alleys and nooks and crannies of Daggus,” Snyder says. “She’s been sort of protecting the exploited workers of that world.”
Her high-temperature swords are powered by her mechanical arms, which explains one of the stranger shots in the teaser trailer—when she appears to amputate her own limbs in a moment of crisis. (Who does that?) The removal of her organic arms was a ritualistic choice made long ago. “These swords are powered by the gauntlets that she holds. The gauntlets are these ancient [artifacts] from her home world, and part of the rite of passage of being a warrior in her world is you have to cut your arm off, and then you put these kind of robot arms on. That allows you to wield these molten-metal blades,” Snyder says.
Despite being a box-office bomb and a critical failure, Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch remains something of a cult favorite among the director’s fans. The film was released back in 2011. It grossed $89.8 million dollars at the box office against a budget of $82 million. After the success of Watchmen, Warner Bros. got behind Snyder and decided to fund the film. He described it at the time as “Alice In Wonderland with guns.”
The movie tells the story of a girl named Babydoll who ends up in an asylum and has to formulate a plan to escape. In her mind, she goes on a journey with the other girls there. She has to complete five objectives to collect five items, which are supposed to grant her freedom.
Snyder claimed that the movie was a satire of the sexism in geek culture. Legendary stated that the movie wasn’t received well because a lot of people didn’t want to accept strong female protagonists. Of course, both of these statements kind of fell flat for most critics. To some, the movie felt exploitative.
These days, it seems Snyder is blaming the negative reception on the fact that the studio had him change the ending. He spoke with Letterboxd, where he discussed the film — and revealed he still wants to someday release his Sucker Punch director’s cut…
I’ve never gotten around to doing the director’s cut. I still plan to at some point. But in the original ending when Babydoll is in the chair in the basement with Blue–she’s already been lobotomized–when the cop shines the light on her, the set breaks apart, and she stands up, and she sings a song on stage.
Snyder noted that this preferred ending is “weirdly not optimistic and optimistic at the same time. That’s kind of what the tone was at the end.” But the studio didn’t like how this ending was testing with audiences, and so Snyder changed it.
“You’ll get to see it at some point, I’m sure,” he added.
The 10 Most Ridiculous Tropes In Action Movies
Good luck finding an action movie that doesn’t have at least a few of these stereotypes.
The moon of Veldt is a David facing down the Goliath of the Mother World, which has amassed abundant wealth, political power, and an immense army. Veldt is nowhere special—until the rulers of the Mother World decide to seize it as a breadbasket.
“They land in the village to say, ‘Listen, you guys will be our local food source while we’re tromping around this part of the galaxy. So how long till the harvest comes in?’ The villagers are pretty much stunned by the brutality, but they don’t realize what level the Mother World’s ready to go to,” Zack Snyder says.
A newcomer named Kora (Sofia Boutella) rallies them to resist rather than roll over. She has been hiding on this moon after fleeing from her own role within the leadership of that oppressive government. (That’s her abandoned starship out beyond the wheat fields.) “The Imperium comes down, and they want to take the women and take the children and they need more soldiers,” Deborah Snyder says. “They’re going to take their food. And [the villagers] go, ‘Look, we can bargain with them.’”
The fugitive hiding in their midst is the only one who knows how foolhardy that is. “Kora used to be in the Imperium, and she’s like, ‘Guys, this ends badly for everybody,’” Zack Snyder says.
Fields of Gold: Filmmaker Zack Snyder and producer Deborah Snyder behind the scenes on Rebel Moon.
Clay Enos/Netflix
Boutella sees the character as a symbol for the way people ignore or run from the problems in their lives, until they can’t anymore. “She knows the guilt that she’s been living with, and the first step of her redemption is doing something about it instead of going away,” says the actor, best known for Atomic Blonde and playing the title role in 2017’s The Mummy opposite Tom Cruise. “I think that, as much as it is sci-fi, it’s a very human story,” she says.
This humble moon of Veldt is a greater danger than anyone realizes because the Mother World’s grip on its empire is secretly weakening and slipping. “They’ve conquered the universe, they’ve scooped everyone into the empire, and they’ve had to make individual deals with the different leaders of the different worlds. You can imagine how complicated that is. A lot of rulers felt like they made a bad deal, or that their fathers’ fathers made a bad deal. They begin to push back,” Zack Snyder says. “It’s more whispers at first. We’re right on the edge of revolution, and if our villagers are successful, the example of that could spur an even bigger revolt.”
The shakeups going on at DC are a little confusing for most people, but nobody more so than Zack Snyder fans. It’s understood that the Snyderverse is essentially defunct and done with, but some fans are still hanging on to the hope that it could continue in some way. After the release of the Snyder Cut of Justice League, certain fans are campaigning for Snyder’s full return. At the very least, if Snyder doesn’t come back to head up the DCU, they want him to buy the rights to make more movies in his own separate DC Universe.
Just given the way intellectual property laws work, it’s not really likely that things end up going that way. Even if he was able to get the characters, he’d likely have to start an entire production company to get the movies in motion. Doing so would cost a ridiculous amount of money, and as Snyder himself said, it’s above his pay grade.
Zack Snyder recently explained the whole thing in a YouTube stream appearance, saying: “It would be amazing if, you know, I could, like, whatever, control over the IP [that] exists. I don’t… That’s not my part. That’s not my role.”
When asked how he feels about the new structure at Warner Bros., and James Gunn and Peter Safran taking over as the CEOs of DC Studios, he was actually fairly chill about the whole thing, and extremely supportive ofGunn and what’s going on at DC.
“I’ll say one thing. Warner Bros., as far as this screening event is concerned, have been incredible. This group now is beyond kind and caring and personal, and it’s been amazing working with it. So I have no complaints beyond that as far as the creative goals and what they’re planning.”
Snyder’s “Full Circle” event will take place at the Ahmanson Auditorium at ArtCenter College of Design on April 28-29, along with an additional screening April 30 at the Universal Cinema AMC at CityWalk Hollywood.
The New DC Universe of Movies and Shows
All the projects announced by DC Studios as the start of “Chapter 1” of the company’s new universe of movies and shows.
