Zack Snyder has been taking to Vero over the last few months to share everything from concept art to original works, even releasing a new video short shot on his iPhone called Snow Steam Iron. Now, he's back on the social media service to talk about the project he wants to put together next, and as it turns out, instead of adapting comics for the big screen, he wants to adapt a famous novel. Specifically, Snyder says Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead will be his next project.
Responding to a fan question on Vero, the famous director simply said "Fountainhead" when asked what his next project would be. The Fountainhead is Ayn Rand's other famous work after Atlas Shrugged, which was made into a three-part movie trilogy between 2011 and 2014. That movie initially was supposed to star Angelina Jolie, but by the time the project came together, it was with a much lower budget and eventual box office intake. Getting The Fountainhead to work on the big screen should also be equally challenging, and may not be the big budget behemoths that Zack Snyder's recent projects Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League (which he eventually exited) were.
The Fountainhead is a novel about Howard Roark, an architect who is particular about the kinds of buildings he designs. During the course of the novel, he meets reporter Dominique Francon, who criticizes Roark's work in print, while sleeping with him on the side. Eventually Roark lands a major commission, but when the build goes awry, it sets off a chain of events, leading to Roark defending his principles as a man and an architect. It's a famous book, and it was already made into a movie once, way back in 1949, with Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal playing the leads.
This isn't the first time that Zack Snyder has talked about wanting to make The Fountainhead into a movie. He previously said that he's been working on the project, noting,
I have been working on The Fountainhead. I've always felt like The Fountainhead was such a thesis on the creative process and what it is to create something. Warner Bros. owns [Ayn Rand's] script and I've just been working on that a little bit.
That interview happened a couple of years ago, when his work with the DC universe kept him busy. Since then, Zack Snyder worked on and then left Justice League before the movie was completed. Now that he is no longer directing works for DC, he should have the free time to develop new projects. We'll just have to wait and see if The Fountainhead is a project a major studio bites on. Given the issues Atlas Shrugged faced in getting developed, we'll have to wait and see at this point. The good news for Zack Snyder fans? It does look as if the director is seriously starting to think about his next movie and getting back on the horse, again.
In the meantime, we'll keep you posted if by some miracle Justice League ever gets a Snyder cut. Regardless, it looks like the director has moved on, so perhaps it's time we should to. Here's what DC actually has coming up.
