army of the dead Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I'm not sure Zack Snyder sleeps at night. Not only is he in the thick of post-production on Watchmen, but he is currently in pre-production on two other films. He must have a lifetime supply of Red Bull. Because I lack his energy, I'm combining two news items into one.

First, Snyder has found a director for his epic zombie movie, Army of the Dead. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Snyder is giving the reins to first time director Matthijs van Heijningen. Van Heijningen has only commercial work to his credit so far, but Snyder praised his ability to "create compelling stories in 30 seconds." You can watch many of van Heijningen's commercials on YouTube. Judge for yourselves if he is up to the task of helming the most ambitious zombie movie in history.

300 fans (and if the Cinematical reader comments are any indication, that would be all of you), take note. Variety is reporting that much of the creative team behind that "abs n' stabs" action extravaganza is reuniting for a new film called The Last Photograph. Photograph is based on an original idea by 300 director Zack Snyder, and is billed as a drama about "a photograph that becomes the catalyst for a journey two men undertake through war-torn Afghanistan." 300 co-screenwriter Kurt Johnstad will write the film for Snyder to possibly direct. The producers of the film intend to develop the film and then put it up for auction.

Reading between the lines of the Variety article, it seems like Snyder wants to direct the project, but doesn't know if he'll have time. And he doesn't know if he'll have time because he's involved with, like, everything! He's currently shooting the highly anticipated Watchmen (check out an update from Snyder on the film's progress here). He intends to direct an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man (read more about that project here). He may direct Army of the Dead, a "zombies in Vegas" flick you can learn more about right here. And he's co-writing and might direct an action fantasy film called Sucker Punch (which you can read more about here). Though I admired the look of the film, I was no fan of 300. On the other hand, I really loved Snyder's remake of Dawn of the Dead. So consider me cautiously optimistic about all the Snyder in our future.

Thanks to the enormous success of 300, director Zack Snyder can probably set up as many dream projects as he wants right now. He has already been able to get Watchmen up and running and he would certainly be offered the 300 sequel if it happens. Another project that he's just set up is a return to the zombie action-horror genre. It is called Army of the Dead and while it sounds like a sequel to his first big hit, Dawn of the Dead, the fact that this will be made by Warner Bros. instead of Universal makes me think it is definitely not related. Snyder wrote the story, which takes place in a quarantined Las Vegas, and he will co-produce with wife Deborah, but he hasn't announced whether or not he'll direct.

For now it is only known that a script is being written by Joby Harold and that Snyder wants the movie to be a sweeping epic with a style similar to that of 300. I am one of the few zombie movie fans that wasn't too crazy about Snyder's Dawn remake (it seemed to me more a scene-by-scene remake of Maximum Overdrive that substituted zombies for trucks), but because I will watch any movie with zombies, I'm willing to give him another shot. Plus, I love the idea of zombies in Vegas. Whenever I'm at a casino, I already think of the people around me as being like the living dead, and I can certainly imagine zombies blankly playing the slots. Of course, since I'm envisioning a campy movie closer in style to Romero's original Dawn of the Dead, I doubt I will be satisfied. Still, I can't completely dismiss it just because it is different than what I would do, and I'm excited to see what Snyder claims will be the biggest-scale zombie movie yet.