Zack Snyder’s last movie, Justice League, came out in November 2017, and while Snyder is listed as an executive producer on several upcoming DC Extended Universe projects, it appears he’s done directing for the franchise. Which has begged the question: what will he helm next? Well wonder no longer, because it’s been announced that Snyder’s next cinematic endeavor will be a zombie movie for Netflix.
Zack Snyder has signed on to direct Army of the Dead, a zombie horror thriller which he’ll produce with his wife/partner, Deborah Snyder, through their Stone Quarry production company. The story, which Snyder came up with himself and Joby Harold wrote the script for, is set during a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, and follows a man who assembles a group of mercenaries to venture with him into the quarantined zone to pull off “the greatest heist ever attempted.”
Army of the Dead was originally set up at Warner Bros back in 2007, but Netflix has now acquired the project, and the “dealmaking” could lead to the major movie studio selling other projects to the streaming company, which previously happened with Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. Army of the Dead is set to begin shooting this summer and the budget could end up being as high as $90 million.
In a way, Army of the Dead is allowing Zack Snyder to come full circle, as he made his feature film making debut with the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake, which was met with many positive reviews and made over $102 million worldwide. Now that his work in the superhero world is finished (for now), Army of the Dead allows him to put a new spin on the zombie genre, and Snyder is clearly excited about making the movie, calling it a “good palette cleanser” that allows him to make “something fun and epic and crazy and bonkers in the best possible way.” He continued in his interview with THR:
I love to honor canon and the works of art, but this is the opportunity to find a purely joyful way to express myself though a genre. It will be the most kick-ass, self-aware — but not in a wink-to-the-camera way — balls-to-the-wall zombie freakshow that anyone has ever seen. No one’s ever let me completely loose [like this].
It’s worth noting that when asked last year what his next project would be, Zack Snyder answered it’d be an adaptation of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. Whether or not that’s still on his radar, Army of the Dead is clearly going to come beforehand, and given how many behind-the-scenes looks he’s shared on Vero of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, it’s possible he’ll chronicle the making of Army of the Dead on the social media platform as well.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates about Army of the Dead, including when it will arrive on Netflix. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release schedule to learn what movies are hitting theaters this year.
