Zack Snyder is a screenwriter, director, producer, and cinematographer that emerged in the industry with his 2004 remake of the 1978 horror movie, Dawn of the Dead. In the same year, he founded a production company with his wife called The Stone Quarry, contributing even more to his understanding and influence on the industry.
Since then, he has created a number of notable and successful films, including 300, Sucker Punch, and several superhero films. With all of these films in his portfolio, he has developed a strong reputation for creating action films, many which lean in a darker direction.
What happened in Army of the Dead?
One of his more recent creations that stick to his brand as a filmmaker is the 2021 zombie flick, Army of the Dead. Snyder came up with the idea for this horror/action film as a sort of successor to his Dawn of the Dead remake. It followed an ensemble of characters that consisted of several big names like Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, and Omari Hardwick.The movie took several years to successfully make, until Netflix acquired the distribution rights to it in 2019.
The film begins with a U.S. military convoy traveling down the highway, hauling what is clearly something dangerous, colliding with a vehicle as they pass through Las Vegas. Amidst the wreck, a zombie escapes from the container, revealing what the danger was. The creature attacks the surrounding soldiers, infecting them with the zombie virus and thus beginning the spread of a zombie outbreak. Six years down the road, a group of mercenaries is carefully assembled, based on their skills, to accomplish the task of securing a large sum of money from a casino vault in the now zombie-infested Las Vegas, all while surviving the apocalypse around them.
If the long, drawn-out creation process wasn’t bad enough, reshoots had to be done with CGI in 2020 when Chris D’Elia was recast, due to a list of sexual misconduct allegations. Finally, in May of 2021, the film was released for a week in select theaters and was then released on Netflix later the same month.
The movie is about a group of mercenaries who plot a casino heist in Las Vegas, amidst a zombie outbreak. Though critics pointed out the movie’s weak plotline, it received considerably good feedback from fans of Snyder and fans of action films. Beyond good feedback, the film grossed $1 million at the box office, won the Academy Award contest for “Oscars Fan Favorite,” and developed its own franchise. The franchise consists of the prequel, Army of Thieves, an anime series titled Lost Vegas that’s not yet been released, and finally, the sequel that’s still in development, Planet of the Dead.
Will Zack Snyder Make Planet of the Dead?
Though the sequel has been confirmed and is in the process of being made, it has already undergone some noticeable changes from the first film. Though from the time Army of the Dead was released, Snyder had expressed his eager interest in a sequel movie, admitting that he and co-writer, Shay Hatten, felt that there was more to be told in the story and that they already knew what direction they would go in to create it. In the following months, the sequel was confirmed and Snyder and Hatten began writing the story, naming it Planet of the Dead, and considering the cast.
However, with yet another successful film under Snyder’s belt, the demand for his work grew. As a result, he was quickly recruited for other projects, pulling him away from finding the time to complete his sequel film. While Snyder still has intentions of completing the sequel, he is currently focusing his energy on other projects, prolonging the time that it will take for Planet of the Dead to be completed and released.
What is Zack Snyder’s Next Project?
Currently, it’s been confirmed that Snyder is working on a number of projects, including Rebel Moon, a space opera that follows a peaceful colony living at the edge of the galaxy that comes under attack by tyrannical beings and must rely on one young woman to create an army to save them. Originally, this movie was set to be released in 2022, but like many of Snyder’s other projects, his particular technique and working style have extended that timeline to sometime this year. This film is already anticipating a sequel film that will closely follow the release of the first, and is surely part of what is taking production time so long.
Other than that, Snyder is working on a couple of superhero films, including The Flash, Aquaman and the Last Kingdom, as well as a new Netflix series called Twilight of the Gods. Already, each of these projects is expected to be successful, which speaks to Snyder’s reputation as a filmmaker and his inevitable ongoing success. His constant collection of projects makes it clear why it takes so long for Snyder’s films and shows to be released, but it also points out why his works are worth the wait.