Tag: Zack Snyder

Posted on in Features

Netflix Should Offer Zack Snyder Their ‘Conan The Barbarian’ Reboot

It was recently suggested by WarnerMedia Studios CEO Ann Sarnoff in an interview with Variety that they don’t have plans to continue or restore the Snyderverse. Which means that Zack Snyder is finally free to make all the wacky film ideas he’s been cooking up over the last decade. He’s talked about making action film about George Washington and taking a crack at the Arthurian legend.

What’s interesting is that he’s now established a working relationship with streaming giant Netflix with his upcoming action-horror flick Army of The Dead, that is coming out on May 21, 2021.

This could mean that Snyder and Netflix will continue working on stuff in the future potentially leading to an over-all development deal at some point.

There is a newly acquired IP at the streamer that feels tailor-made for the filmmaker. As Netflix got their hands on the film and television rights to Robert E. Howard’s sword and sorcery hero Conan The Barbarian last year. The character has multiple stories written by Howard and other writers that continued Conan’s adventures over the decades including folks like Wheel of Time’s Robert Jordan.

In my opinion, there is really only one solid live-action adaptation and that is the fantastic John Milius movie from 1982 that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Earl Jones. The film got made thanks in part to the books popularity in the 1970’s and the string of comic books that were published by Marvel Comics.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) – Orphaned boy Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is enslaved after his village is destroyed by the forces of vicious necromancer Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones), and is compelled to push “The Wheel of Pain” for many years. Once he reaches adulthood, Conan sets off across the prehistoric landscape of the Hyborian Age in search of the man who killed his family and stole his father’s sword. With beautiful warrior Valeria (Sandahl Bergman) and archer Subotai (Gerry Lopez), he faces a supernatural evil.

I have to assume given Zack’s obsession with John Boorman’s Excalibur that something like Conan The Barbarian might also be a fantasy film that resonates with him and could be an established IP that Netflix could offer Snyder.

We’ve seen with 300 that Zack could bring something visually interesting to a mature fantasy adventure epic like Conan The Barbarian. At it’s core, the 300 comic from Frank Miller and the Zack Snyder film owes a lot to things like Conan.

The world of Conan can be a blank canvas for someone like Snyder to develop something into his own and Netflix isn’t likely going to micromanage because box office isn’t even a factor with their originals as streaming is a complete different. You can tell with his DC stuff that he’s itching to tackle something like this.

The less said about Jason Momoa’s 2011 Conan reboot the better. Since then, the actor has developed a more charismatic on-screen persona with stuff like Game of Thrones and taking on the Aquaman role. I wouldn’t be opposed to giving Jason another shot at playing Conan given that he’s grown as an actor and has an existing relationship with Snyder.

Anyways, I’m hopefully that Netflix’s interest with expanding Snyder’s Army of The Dead into their own franchise means that they’ll at least consider him for other stuff like Conan The Barbarian as it feels like it could be a good fit for him.

Posted on in Film News

WarnerMedia’s Ann Sarnoff Joins Zack Snyder In Denouncing Toxic Fandom – Too Little Too Late?

Yesterday, WarnerMedia Studios CEO Ann Sarnoff spoke with Variety in a lengthy interview and suggested that Zack Snyder’s era has ended with his version of Justice League completing his trilogy. Hopefully, fans can respectfully accept that WarnerMedia is focusing on new projects and won’t be returning to the Snyderverse anytime soon.

I say this because there is vocal group of toxic fans that have embedded themselves into The Snyder Cut movement and even getting on the radar of Snyder himself. This made waves last week in the blogging community with a charity Zoom event where Zack Snyder had to distance himself from the Alt-Right leaning Geeks+Gamers YouTube channel. The Zoom happened to include three people linked to G+G along with a couple other YouTubers in the Zoom that are equally questionable.

After Snyder’s statement, the G+G channel seemed to be outraged that he would distance himself on their live-stream reaction and this led to one of their cohorts, Ethan Van Sciver, essentially wig-out over it and you can see his comment during the stream below as ComicArtistPro Secrets.

Ethan is actually mentioned by name in the “thank you” section of the credits for Zack Snyder’s Justice League, so he’s not unknown to the filmmaker or The Snyder Cut group. He went even further on his own stream with a horrifying rant about calling upon people to kill Chinese people (this coming soon after the shooting in Atlanta that targeted Asian women) with a machine gun on his own YouTube channel with other people linked to G+G in the chat and one other person agreeing with the violent call-to-arms.

It certainly begs the question why didn’t anyone vet these people as most of them have public personas/channels that could have been looked over by other people if Zack was too busy. Snyder had previously dismissed the “toxic fan” question recently citing the money they had raised for suicide prevention. These are the same people he eventually denounced last week as G+G and Ethan thought raising donations gave them cover to keep being horribly toxic because Snyder had embraced them for the charity stuff.

Well, Sarnoff in the interview with Variety took the opportunity to denounce toxicity in the fandom.

SARNOFF: “We’re not tolerating any of that. That behavior is reprehensible no matter what franchise you’re talking about or what business you’re talking about. It’s completely unacceptable. I’m very disappointed in the fans that have chosen to go to that negative place with regard to DC, with regard to some of our executives. It’s just disappointing because we want this to be a safe place to be. We want DC to be a fandom that feels safe and inclusive. We want people to be able to speak up for the things they love, but we don’t want it to be a culture of cancelling things that any small faction isn’t happy with. We are not about that. We are about positivity and celebration.”

There are already butt-hurt people from yesterday’s news about moving on from the Snyderverse trying to coax fans into boycotting the HBO Max release of Godzilla vs. Kong later this month to send a message to WarnerMedia, which is only going to hurt the people involved with that film including Legendary, who has nothing to do with the current wave of DC Comics projects. It feels like this is only going to get worse now that there won’t be months of speculation about when WarnerMedia announces the next DC project from Snyder.

Boycotts have been a huge thing in both DC and Star Wars fandom from a small minority of people thinking depriving views on streaming services or box office money will lead studios to reconsider certain choices they’ve made as massive corporations.

While most of my own interactions with DC fans has been mostly positive including from those that are keen for the Snyderverse to make a return and have been championing The Snyder Cut. The ones that do stand-out are the people who gang-up and upload targeted harassment from mostly anonymous Twitter accounts. When that toxicity it’s brought-up there are plenty of people quick to dismiss any of that and jump directly into whataboutism instead of sticking to the topic-at-hand.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

WarnerMedia Moving On From The Zack Snyder Era & Unlikely Restoring The Snyderverse

Zack Snyder’s Justice League finally debuted last week on HBO Max and embolden fans to push their next phase of their Snyder campaign with #RestoreTheSnyderverse, however, that doesn’t seem to be really in the cards despite over a year of hucksters pushing bogus scoops that Zack was coming back to make more films and oversee the franchise again.

Variety spoke with WarnerMedia Studios CEO Ann Sarnoff, who poured cold water all over that fan speculation as she states that Zack has now completed his trilogy with his original version of Justice League and seem to be more focused on the other things they’re currently working on with their other DC Comics films. Ann also reiterates they never actually planned on releasing Zack Snyder’s Justice League until about a year ago and doesn’t sound like it’s release has inspired them to reconsider having him return to make more films.

SARNOFF: “We wanted to give Zack the opportunity to complete his vision in a four-hour movie, which is impossible to do in theaters. We’re happy that we have HBO Max to let the rope out as it were and allow the fans to see all four-hours of Zack’s vision.”

“I appreciate that they love Zack’s work and we are very thankful for his many contributions to DC. We’re just so happy that he could bring his cut of the Justice League to life because that wasn’t in the plan until about a year ago. With that comes the completion of his trilogy. We’re very happy we’ve done this, but we’re very excited about the plans we have for all the multi-dimensional DC characters that are being developed right now.”

Some fans have been hopeful that Zack would at the very least be able to finish the films he planned to make after Justice League. That seems far-fetched given the vast amount of money spent on Justice League alone and there is a big difference between an extra $70 million to complete an unfinished cut and WarnerMedia spending another $200-300 million a pop for more films that only small portion of people are asking for. The latter seems to be a stretch even more so with the comments from Sarnoff.

As Zack’s relationship with Netflix grows after releasing Army of The Dead, I wouldn’t be shocked if he ended up pursuing bigger projects with them in the future and maybe even superhero stuff since as they have plenty of comic book adaptations.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

Zack Snyder Originally Wanted To Use John Stewart’s Green Lantern In ‘Justice League’ But Settled On Martian Manhunter Instead

Director Zack Snyder had confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter this week that he had been dreaming about adding Ryan Reynolds’ Hal Jordan aka Green Lantern to his cut of Justice League (now ready to stream on HBO Max). Further mentioning he wanted to a group of Lanterns that would have included Jordan.

SNYDER: “There was another idea I had for the Green Lantern that wasn’t Ryan, and so I thought that if we had gone down this path of Green Lantern, I would have had to have Ryan as the additional Lantern, filling out the Lantern Corps a little bit more than say just one Green Lantern.”

He names another Lantern he wanted to add.

While speaking with Vanity Fair, Zack Snyder revealed that he originally wanted to use John Stewart, another version of Green Lantern, but wasn’t allowed by studio as they had other plans for him and instead settled on Martian Manhunter.

SNYDER: “We shot a version of this scene with Green Lantern, but the studio really fought me and said, ‘We really don’t want you to do Green Lantern,’ so I made a deal with them, and they let me do this [instead].”

Okay, but which Green Lantern did Snyder want to use?

SNYDER: “It would be John Stewart.They were like, ‘We have plans for John Stewart and we want to do our own announcement.’ So I said all right, I’ll give you that. So [Martian Manhunter] was the compromise.”

The studio ultimately didn’t use Stewart, as you might remember that Warner Bros. had attempted to make a Green Lantern Corps. movie but they decided to go with an HBO Max series. The streaming series will feature DC characters such as Guy Gardner, Jessica Cruz, Simon Baz, Alan Scott, Sinestro, and Kilowog.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League is ready to watch depending where you live in the world.

SOURCE: VANITY FAIR

Posted on in Film News

‘Army of The Dead’: Watch Teaser Trailer For Zack Snyder’s Zombie Action Flick Coming To Netflix On May 21st

Earlier today, Netflix released the first teaser trailer for Zack Snyder’s Army of The Dead, a Las Vegas heist movie set within the zombie horror genre. Zack you might remember teamed-up with screenwriter James Gunn on the fantastic remake of George A. Romero’s Dawn of The Dead and seeing him return to the genre should be exciting for horror fans.

Following a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries take the ultimate gamble, venturing into the quarantine zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted.

The film stars Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Ana de la Reguera, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, Raúl Castillo, Michael Cassidy, Tig Notaro, and Garret Dillahunt.

Army of The Dead will be released on Netflix May 21st.

Posted on in News

Zack Snyder Says He’s Developing Arthurian Project – “Faithful Retelling of That Arthurian Mythological Concept”

While Zack Snyder has been suggesting he’ll be moving on from DC Comics projects in the future, that doesn’t seem to have stopped his fans from demanding he return to the franchise after the release of his version of Justice League heading to HBO Max on March 18th. However, a new non-DC project was apparently revealed by Snyder during a chat with Minutemen (spotted by CBR). As the director, who is a big fan of John Boorman’s 1981 film Excalibur, has teased early development on his own project covering the iconic Arthurian mythology.

SNYDER: “I’m working on something but we’ll see. I’ve been thinking about some kind of retelling, like, real sort of faithful retelling of that Arthurian mythological concept. We’ll see. Maybe that will come at some point.”

It will be interesting to see if the project lands at Netflix, where Zack Snyder was able to sell Army of The Dead after he couldn’t secure a proper budget for the horror-action flick elsewhere. Netflix is keen on the fantasy genre with two projects taking place within the world of The Witcher and they recently landed the film/television rights to Robert E. Howard’s Conan The Barbarian.

Given that the Arthurian stuff is in the public domain it could allow Snyder to find a comfortable home for the project and getting the budget he needs to make it properly without having to worry about it being a studio IP.

John Boorman made his R-rated Excalibur after he couldn’t get his mature Lord of The Rings film together and was instead turned into an animated feature by Ralph Bakshi. Another mature feature set within the Arthurian mythology is eventually going to be released by A24 with David Lowery’s The Green Knight.

Warner Bros. attempted to launch a King Arthur/Knights of The Round Table franchise starting with the Guy Ritchie film but it failed to connect with audiences killing development of the multiple films they had been planning for each of the Knights.

I’ll be curious to see if Snyder actually wants to attempt a real fantasy project or some sort of genre hybrid. 300 has been the closest thing to a fantasy project from Zack but also happened to be a comic book adaptation.

SOURCE: MINUTEMEN

Posted on in Film News

‘Army of The Dead’: Zack Snyder Says Warner Bros. Passed On The Zombie Project – Prequel Movie Wraps Production

Zack Snyder‘s horror remake Dawn of The Dead (penned by James Gunn) is arguably one of the filmmaker’s most accessible feature films to date. So, having the the director return to the zombie/action-horror genre with Army of The Dead for Netflix is exciting for a multitude of reasons.

Following a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries take the ultimate gamble, venturing into the quarantine zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted.

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Zack reveals that the film had been lingering at Warner Bros. for years but the studio ultimately didn’t want to make it because of the money involved for the budget that would have taken to get it made the way that Snyder wanted.

SNYDER: “They didn’t want to spend that kind of money on a zombie movie, or just didn’t take it that seriously. I was always like, ‘Look guys, this is more than [just a zombie movie],’ but it fizzled out.”

Ultimately, the streaming giant Netflix picked-up Army of The Dead after they loved the pitch detailed by Snyder. They’ve been so enthused about the project, Netflix also recently wrapped on a prequel film last month directed by franchise actor Matthias Schweighofer.

SNYDER: “We were in a meeting at Netflix and I was talking about some of these scripts I was working on. 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.'”

Netflix obviously has few roadblocks concerning budgets for their projects as they notably spend a hefty amount of money on original programming, however, The Gray Man from The Russo Brothers will be their first film budgeted over $200 million competing on the level of major film studios.

Army of The Dead’s large cast consists of Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Ana De La Reguera, Theo Rossi, Huma Qureshi, Omari Hardwick, Hiroyuki Sanada, Garret Dillahunt, Matthias Schweighöfer, Raúl Castillo, Nora Arnezeder, Tig Notaro, and Samantha Win. 

It’s expected to drop later this year and Netflix is banking on it becoming their new horror franchise. A trailer is likely on the horizon given the new promotion for the film.

SOURCE: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

Posted on in Television News

Zack Snyder’s ‘Justice League: Director’s Cut’ Is Coming To HBO Max In March

In a brief exchange with a fan on Vero, it looks like director Zack Snyder has revealed that his version of Justice League heading to HBO Max next year will be coming out sometime in March.

SOURCE: ZACK SNYDER/VERO

Posted on in Television News

Jared Leto’s Joker and Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke Returning For Zack Snyder’s ‘Justice League’ – Will Be Part of Additional Photography

The additional photography of Zack Snyder’s Justice League for HBO Max will see two Batman rogues make a return.

The Hollywood Reporter says that Jared Leto will be reprising the Joker after previously playing him Suicide Squad and having his role reportedly scaled-down from the original version from David Ayer. Other actors mentioned returning include Ben Affleck as Batman, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, and Amber Heard as Mera.

The Joker and Affleck’s Batman briefly tussled in a scene in Suicide Squad but never shot scenes for Justice League.

Collider also reports that Joe Manganiello will be reprising the role of Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke as well. He was briefly shown at the end of Justice League alongside Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor as a teaser for the Legion of Doom.

The extent of their return isn’t mentioned. However, this news of the inclusion of Leto’s Joker seems to reinforce the project is indeed moving beyond the edit he showed Warner Bros. brass before Joss Whedon was brought-on.

It seems like neither Henry Cavill or Gal Gadot will be part of the new filming.

Snyder’s Justice League instead of being a single film edit will be divided into four hour long segments similar to a miniseries format as confirmed by HBO Max, who is putting up the money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6512XKKNkU

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER & COLLIDER

Posted on in Film News

Zack Snyder’s Zombie Flick ‘Army of The Dead’ Getting A Prequel Movie and Anime Series Titled ‘Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas’

Netflix announced today via Variety that Zack Snyder’s upcoming zombie genre action flick Army of The Dead will be getting a prequel film and an “anime” series. 

Following a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries take the ultimate gamble, venturing into the quarantine zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted.

Army of The Dead’s cast consists of Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Ana De La Reguera, Theo Rossi, Huma Qureshi, Omari Hardwick, Hiroyuki Sanada, Garret Dillahunt, Matthias Schweighöfer, Raúl Castillo, Nora Arnezeder, and Samantha Win. 

It was recently announced that stand-up comedian and actress Tig Notaro would be joining the film as well. 

Shay Hatten will write the prequel and anime series. 

Matthias Schweighöfer, who plays Ludwig Dieter will direct and focuses on his character. 

The anime series titled Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas follows Dave Bautista’s character with Jay Oliva (The Dark Knight Returns) showrunning and directing a couple of episodes. 

Most of the shows being labeled as anime by Netflix aren’t part of that genre and it seems to be a blanket marketing term used by the streaming service, we’ll have to wait and see if it applies to this show. 

SOURCE: VARIETY