A lot of Zack Snyder fans are understandably looking forward to the filmmaker’s original vision for Justice League, a.k.a. the Snyder Cut, coming out next year, but let’s not forget that he also has a zombie flick on the way called Army of the Dead. While that movie finished principal photography a while back, word’s come in that one of the actors, Chris D’Elia, is being removed from it, and comedian Tig Notaro will replace him.
For those unaware, back in June, Chris D’Elia, whose credits include movies like XOXO and Little Evil, and TV shows like Undatable and You, was accused of sexual misconduct, which he has denied. Nevertheless, D’Elia was subsequently dropped by his talent agency, plans for him starring in an unscripted Netflix show were scrapped, and now he’s being taken out of Army of the Dead altogether.
While Zack Snyder and his Army of the Dead team carried out its main shoot in the latter half of 2019, according to THR, the movie will now undergo a “quick round” of reshoots in order for Tig Notaro to be inserted within. Because filming wrapped up months ago, as well as the current health crisis restricting domestic productions, Notaro’s incorporation will be accomplished from a combination of techniques, including her reshooting scenes opposite an acting partner and relying on green screen and CGI technology to blend her in with the previously-captured footage.
While Tig Notaro is arguably best known for her work as a standup comedian, she certainly has her own sizable collection of film and TV credits, from Dog Days, Instant Family and Lucy in the Sky on the big screen side of things, to Transparent, Star Trek: Discovery and One Mississippi in the small screen realm. Notaro also already has an established with Netflix, which is where Army of the Dead is heading, through the 2015 documentary Tig and the 2018 comedy special Happy To Be Here.
If this recasting of a role late in the filmmaking game sounds familiar, it’s because director Ridley Scott did something similar with 2017’s All the Money in the World. A little under two months before that movie was supposed to come out, Scott decided to carry out fast-paced reshoots that brought in Christopher Plummer to replace Kevin Spacey as J. Paul Getty, as Spacey had been accused of sexual misconduct weeks earlier. In the case of Army of the Dead, it sounds like what’s being done with Tig Notaro won’t be anywhere near as expensive an endeavor as All the Money in the World’s Plummer-ization cost.
Army of the Dead follows a group of mercenaries who infiltrate Las Vegas in the midst of a zombie outbreak to pull off a high-stakes heist. Tig Notaro’s costars include Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Ana de la Reguera, Garret Dillahunt, Raúl Castillo and Omari Hardwick, to name a few. Along with his directing duties, Snyder also wrote the script and served as cinematographer.
It hasn’t been announced yet when Army of the Dead will hit Netflix, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for that information and more updates.
