Moviefone Editorial

Tag: zack-snyder

  • Dave Bautista to Star in Zack Snyder’s Zombie Flick ‘Army of the Dead’

    Dave Bautista to Star in Zack Snyder’s Zombie Flick ‘Army of the Dead’

    Warner Bros.

    You thought the “Hurricane Heist” was extreme? Try robbing a bank while fending off zombies. (We don’t recommend it.)

    Dave Bautista will headline “Army of the Dead,” the zombie heist flick that Zack Snyder is directing for Netflix.

    Snyder cowrote the film, which is about a group of mercenaries who try to pull off a big score in the midst of a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas. How do you like them odds?

    Next up: Bautista returns as Drax in “Avengers: Endgame” on April 26 and (at some point) in the third “Guardians of the Galaxy,” now that James Gunn is back on board.

    He also stars in the upcoming action comedy “Stuber,” in which he plays a grizzled cop named Stu who must team up with a mild-mannered Uber driver played by Kumail Nanjiani. After that, it’s “My Spy,” another action comedy that pairs him with a 9-year-old girl.

    He’s currently filming “Dune” for his “Blade Runner 2049” director Denis Villenueve.

    [Via Deadline]

  • Zack Snyder Wants Everyone to ‘Wake the F— Up’ About Batman Killing People

    Zack Snyder Wants Everyone to ‘Wake the F— Up’ About Batman Killing People

    Warner Bros.

    “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” director Zack Snyder is firing back at fans upset that Batman killed someone in the movie: “Wake the fuck up.”

    At a Director’s Cuts event (a video of which was posted to Reddit), Snyder addressed complaints about Ben Affleck’s Dark Knight being a killer. Comic fans were particularly angry, since Batman has a no-kill policy in the comics.

    “Batman v Superman” and Snyder’s follow-up “Justice League” have been criticized for their dark and grim tone.

    “Someone says to me: Batman killed a guy. I’m like, ‘Fuck, really? Wake the fuck up,’” Snyder said.

    He continued, “Once you’ve lost your virginity to this fucking movie and then you come and say to me something about like, ‘My superhero wouldn’t do that.’ I’m like, ‘Are you serious?’ I’m like down the fucking road on that.”

    “It’s a cool point of view to be like, ‘My heroes are still innocent. My heroes didn’t fucking lie to America. My heroes didn’t embezzle money from their corporations. My heroes didn’t commit any atrocities.’ That’s cool. But you’re living in a fucking dream world.”

    Snyder is no longer involved with the DC Extended Universe films (though he retains producing credits on “Aquaman” and the upcoming “Wonder Woman 1984”). He left “Justice League” near the end of production due to family issues; Joss Whedon stepped in to finish the film. And Warner Bros. appears to be aiming for a lighter, entertaining tone with its recent and upcoming movies, including next week’s “Shazam!”

    Snyder’s next project is Netflix’s zombie movie “Army of the Dead.”

  • Zack Snyder Returns to Director’s Chair for Zombie Movie ‘Army of the Dead’

    Zack Snyder Returns to Director’s Chair for Zombie Movie ‘Army of the Dead’

    Warner Bros.

    Zack Snyder is returning to the director’s chair again.

    Snyder stepped away from movies while in post-production on “Justice League” in 2017 due to a family tragedy. Joss Whedon stepped in to complete the superhero team-up.

    Now, he’s back, signing on to direct “Army of the Dead,” a zombie film for Netflix. He’ll also produce with wife Deborah Snyder through their newly rebranded production company, Stone Quarry.

    Based on a story by Snyder, the movie is an adventure set amid a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, during which a man assembles a group of mercenaries to take the ultimate gamble, venturing into the quarantined zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted.

    Snyder directed or produced most of Warner Bros. DC Comics films, starting with “Man of Steel.” Principal filming had ended on “Justice League” when his and Deborah’s daughter committed suicide. Snyder stepped away to focus on his family, while Whedon stepped in to finish reshoots and other postproduction work.

    “Army of the Dead” represents not just a return to filmmaking for Snyder, but a return to the genre he started out in. His feature debut was 2004’s zombie flick “Dawn of the Dead.”

    “There are no handcuffs on me at all with this one,” Snyder told The Hollywood Reporter.

    “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].”

  • Zack Snyder ‘Liked’ a DC Fan’s Post Shading Joss Whedon After ‘Batgirl’ Exit

    Do Joss Whedon and Zack Snyder have Taylor Swift/Katy Perry-level bad blood?

    Director Zack Snyder launched the DCEU with “Man of Steel” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” Whedon took over directing “Justice League” after Snyder was reportedly fired last year. After the disappointment of the final product — which still has Snyder’s name on it — DC fans have been pushing to see Snyder’s director’s cut of “Justice League.”

    Well, yesterday, Whedon said he was exiting the “Batgirl” movie he was supposed to write and direct for DC/Warner Bros. He supposedly just didn’t have a story, but others suspect the flaws of “Justice League” (and some of his own personal issues) may have been to blame.

    One DC fan responded to a Vulture report on Whedon’s exit by saying it was basically good news for the DCEU that Whedon was out. Her Vero post shading Whedon (and the media) was liked by both Zack Snyder and DCEU photographer Clay Enos. Here are screen shots via Batman-News:

    Clay Enos definitely seems to be Team Zack Snyder; Snyder directed “300,” and Enos responded to another fan’s joking support of Snyder as “The Tragic Hero” (with Whedon as “The Abominable Weapon”):

    Twitter does need an edit button.

    The DCEU keeps subtracting people — from Snyder and Whedon to possibly Ben Affleck, depending on what’s up with the Batman standalone. Reports just came out yesterday that James Wan’s “Aquaman” is looking solid, but it’s early days for that movie. And fans have been burned before. But here’s hoping DC fans do end up having some good news to rally around and celebrate by the end of the year.

    Want more stuff like this? Like us on Facebook.

  • Zack Snyder Was ‘Fired From the DCEU’ a Year Ago, Reports Claim

    Director Zack Snyder reportedly didn’t leave “Justice League” of his own volition, despite what was later said.

    “Justice League” came out in theaters in November 2017, and it’s just coming out on digital this week. The director drama was recently revived because reporter Josh L. Dickey — who has written for Mashable, Variety, The Wrap, the Associated Press, and more — is leaving the industry, and he decided to drop some truth bombs on his way out the door.

    Since he has no f*cks left to give, Dickey decided to clarify his own Zack Snyder report for Mashable from July 2017.

    Dickey tweeted, on February 10, 2018, that Zack Snyder was actually fired from the DC film universe just over a year go. It had first been reported by The Hollywood Reporter in May 2017 that Snyder was stepping away from “Justice League” to grieve the death of his daughter, who had died in March, and Joss Whedon would finish the movie. A few months later, in July 2017, Dickey reported for Mashable that Snyder would “take a significantly smaller role with the franchise going forward.”

    Collider‘s Matt Goldberg added that he’d “heard similar things from separate sources over the last year as well. I also heard that Snyder’s rough-cut of the movie was ‘unwatchable’ (a word that jumped out at me because it’s rare you hear two separate sources use the exact same adjective). Of course, even if that’s true, there’s obviously more to the story since rough cuts can be fixed up with reshoots, rewrites, etc.”

    The idea that Snyder was fired from the DCEU — while still retaining producer credits on several upcoming films — isn’t exactly shocking, but the timing of personal events last year complicated the story.

    Snyder directed “Man of Steel” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” and he’s still credited as director of “Justice League.” He also has producer credits for “Wonder Woman,” “Suicide Squad,” “Aquaman,” and “Wonder Woman 2.” As of February 2018, more than 170,000 fans have signed a Change.org petition to see his director’s cut of “Justice League.”

    The movie is available on digital Tuesday, Feb. 13.

    Want more stuff like this? Like us on Facebook.

  • 3 Reasons Why ‘Justice League’ Bombed at the Box Office

    If “Justice League” were a typical Hollywood release, Warner Bros. would be ecstatic right now. After all, the movie debuted to an estimated $94 million, easily conquering the box office chart.

    But of course, “Justice” is not a typical Warners release. It’s a $300 million superhero saga that, by bringing together all the biggest heroes in the DC Expanded Universe for the first time in a live-action film, was supposed to be a cornerstone of the studio’s business plan for the next several years. It was supposed to be DC’s own “Avengers“; indeed, Warners even hired “Avengers” series director Joss Whedon to complete the film after director Zack Snyder had to drop out partway through due to a family tragedy.

    Back in September, after “Wonder Woman” had become the most successful domestic box office performer in the DCEU franchise so far, pundits were predicting a $150 million premiere for “Justice League.” In recent weeks, they downgraded that estimate to about $110 or $120 million.

    So a $94 million debut is an embarrassment, both for being so far off and for failing to crack the $100 million mark. It’s also a sign of trouble for a movie whose production and marketing costs are so high that it’ll have to gross about $1 billion worldwide just to break even. And as the lowest debut among the five DCEU movies to date, it’s an ominous figure for a multibillion-dollar franchise whose next several installments depended heavily on this one being a hit.

    Why were the experts so overconfident about “Justice League,” and why didn’t it enjoy a more superheroic opening? Here are three reasons.

    1. Competition

    If you were scheduling the release of a DCEU superhero epic, would you do it just two weeks into the run of a superhero epic from rival Marvel? Probably not, and yet “Justice League” was hobbled right out of the gate by having to contend with “Thor: Ragnarok,” still going strong this weekend with an estimated $21.8 million.

    Also, for “Justice League” to succeed, it needed to draw upon a broad audience that included both men and women. Unfortunately, there were many more movies in the multiplex with appeal to both demographics this weekend. There was Julia Roberts‘s drama “Wonder,” which opened in second place with an estimated $27.1 million. That was about $9 million above expectations, thanks perhaps to especially strong reviews (84 percent fresh at Rotten Tomatoes) and audience word-of-mouth (an A+ grade at CinemaScore).

    Many families also went to see Christmas-themed family cartoon “The Star,” which opened in sixth place with an estimated $10 million. Like “Wonder,” “The Star” pleased both critics and audiences enough to debut well above expectations, by about $3 million. And then there were holdover hits “Daddy’s Home 2,” “Murder on the Orient Express,” and “A Bad Moms Christmas,” all films that appealed to numerous audience segments, which sold a combined $35.5 million in tickets this weekend.

    Altogether, it was a very good weekend at the multiplex, the fourth best of 2017 so far and the biggest in the more than four months since the July premiere of “Spider Man: Homecoming.” The total take for all movies was just $35,000 shy of $200 million. It could have pushed past that benchmark if only “Justice League” had been a stronger choice in the face of so many worthy alternatives.

    2. Theater Count

    It’s easy to forget how important this is. “Justice League” was booked onto 4,051 screens, which sounds like a lot, but the four previous DCEU movies screened in even more theaters, one or two hundred more. Of course, they also all enjoyed higher per-screen averages than “Justice League,” but some of them not by much. “Justice League” claimed an average of $23,698 per screen, compared to $24,790 for “Wonder Woman” and $27,720 for “Man of Steel.” Given those numbers, if “Justice League” had played on just 169 more screens, it would have cracked $100 million.

    “Suicide Squad” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” both had much higher per-screen averages, well above $30,000, but they also opened at less competitive times of the year (August and March, respectively). Taking into account the current crowded marketplace and the lower theater count, analysts should have realized how unrealistic it was to expect a “Justice League” debut of $150 or even $110 million.

    3. Bad Buzz

    There will be a lot of grumbling over how poorly the movie fared at Rotten Tomatoes, where aggregated reviews from critics averaged out to a poor 40 percent fresh score. There was some controversy over the site’s refusal to divulge the score until the last minute, though that was apparently more a gimmick to get people to watch the reveal on “See It/Skip It,” RT’s streaming show on Facebook, than to aid Warners (a minority stakeholder in RT’s parent company) by keeping the low score hidden from advance ticket buyers.

    Paying customers had a similarly middling response, judging by the B+ grade they gave it at CinemaScore. That’s better than the B they gave “Batman v Superman,” equal to the grade they gave “Suicide Squad,” and weaker than the A- they gave “Man of Steel” or the A they gave “Wonder Woman.”

    The meh response among fans and critics alike points to a larger problem for the franchise, which has been execution. DC has an ardent fan base, for whom such characters as Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman have built up nearly eight decades’ worth of good will. They’ll come see any DCEU movie, whether out of loyalty or FOMO. But the DCEU’s grim, dour treatment of their stories has alienated many viewers. (Christopher Nolan‘s “Dark Knight” trilogy offered a similarly stoic treatment of Batman, but it was also more thought-provoking and substantive than the DCEU movies have been.) A lot of critics and fans blame Snyder, who set that tone with “Man of Steel” and continued it with “Batman v Superman” and now “Justice League.” Whedon came aboard after principal photography ended, writing and directing enough additional scenes to earn a co-screenwriting credit, and he may or may not be responsible for the lighter tone and more streamlined plotting of “Justice League”; nonetheless, critics and fans have found the tone and performances inconsistent.

    With “Wonder Woman,” director Patty Jenkins showed that DCEU films could successfully strike a balance between levity and seriousness. Her tone and Gal Gadot‘s enthusiastic performance won over diehard fans and casual viewers alike. Their movie showed that there was another way forward for the DCEU, but it also may have raised expectations so high that “Justice League,” with its difficult production history, simply couldn’t meet them.

    It’s not all bad news for “Justice League,” which has already earned an estimated $185.5 million overseas. Still, even if it performs as well over the next few weeks as the most successful DCEU installments (“Batman v Superman” and “Wonder Woman”), it’ll likely top out at around $800 million worldwide. After you deduct the theater owners’ share of the grosses (about half), as well as production and marketing costs, that figure won’t be enough to make “Justice League” profitable.

    If future DCEU movies are going to be the mass crowd pleasers they have to be in order to earn the 10-figure grosses they need to justify their cost, they’ll have to find another creative approach to the characters. Whatever they’re doing now, it’s not working as it should.

  • Fans Petition Warner Bros. to Release Zack Snyder’s ‘Justice League’ Director’s Cut 

    An Alternative View Of The 'Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice' New York PremiereAn angry “Justice League” petition is picking up steam.

    This Change.org petition to Warner Bros. was actually started almost a week before today’s November 17 release of the film. Titled “Zack Snyder’s Director’s Cut and Tom Holkenborg’s (Junkie XL) Score for Home Release,” the petition now has about 7,000 signatures toward its goal of 7,500.

    The petition description is quite lengthy and filled with a section ENTIRELY IN ALL CAPS. But the crux of the argument is that when director Zack Snyder left the film for personal reasons, and Joss Whedon took over, a lot changed and fans would like to see Snyder’s original vision. The film lost its original composer, and also got shortened to a very brief two hours. So they’re hoping to at least see what Snyder had intended in the eventual home release.

    Here’s the start of the petition:

    “We the undersigned make this petition, because during the last few months, the film Justice League underwent a few changes in terms of composer and runtime. Zack Snyder, director of the film, screened Justice League to Warner Bros. executives earlier this year, they where happy with the film, but the director himself felt the film needed something more, he contacted Joss Whedon, director of The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, to write a few additional scenes with plans to shoot them over the summer, but an unfortunate tragedy in his family happened and he understandably had to step down, Warner Bros. following Snyder’s departure, released a statement saying that Justice League will be finished as Zack Snyder’s vision, but a week after that statement, composer Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL) was replaced with Danny Elfman, much to the dismay of fans, who were concerned about the thematic compositional elements from Man of Steel and Batman v Superman being changed, due to the change in composer. In early October cinemas confirmed that the runtime for Justice League will be 2hrs long, much to the shock of fans, who were asking themselves: “how will a film that has 6 main characters, their supporting players, a story that revolves around an alien invasion, the terraforming of earth and the return of a familiar face, would fit in a 2hr runtime?” […]

    Justice League is the culmination of the alien’s story and the beginning of a new chapter in the DC Extended Universe. Fans have been waiting for years, while others have waited decades for the film to finally arrive on the silver screen. The 2hr runtime is disrespectful towards Zack Snyder’s vision and towards the fans who have waited for more than a year to see the alien’s story come to an end.”

    There’s a lot more, so read it all and check out the comments.

    You had to know a blame game was coming, considering all of the drama behind-the-scenes to make this film, and the mixed reviews. The Rotten Tomatoes score for the movie is currently 40%, but the Audience Score is much higher at 86%, continuing the usual DC vs critics narrative. The Metacritic score is 46.

    It’s possible what Zack Snyder really had in mind for “Justice League” was this Supreme Court version, which premiered on “Jimmy Kimmel Live”:You Can’t Handle the Ruth!

    “Justice League,” directed by Zack Snyder with an assist from Joss Whedon, is now in theaters. No date has been released yet for the home release.

    Want more stuff like this? Like us on Facebook.

  • Damon Lindelof Trophy Photo Reveals HBO’s ‘Watchmen’ Series Has Started

    UPDATE: Later on Sept. 20, HBO confirmed “Watchmen” is moving forward, giving a green light to a pilot and ordering backup scripts.

    Original post:

    “Day One” is already over.

    “Watchmen” was adapted into a movie directed by Zack Snyder in 2009. In 2015, Snyder had meetings with HBO to try and adapt the graphic novel into a series. More recently, rumors spread that “The Leftovers” and “Lost” honcho Damon Lindelof would be tackling that “Watchmen” series for HBO.

    It looks like that’s already happening. Lindlelof got fans talking — and dream-casting — with this Instagram post marking “Day One”:

    Day One.

    A post shared by Damon (@damonlindelof) on

    What is that statue? Uproxx explained the connection to “Watchmen”:

    “For those unfamiliar, that’s the retirement trophy given to Night Owl, the WWII-era vigilante who wrote a memoir that appeared in the back pages of the original issues of Watchmen. It comes into play as the comic considers how WWII-era social changes would have influenced, and in some cases warped, the four-color square-jawed heroes of the Golden Age.”

    2015 Summer TCA Tour - Day 3Here’s more on the Watchmen from DC Comics:

    “Watchmen takes place in an alternate world where the mere presence of American superheroes changed history: The US won the Vietnam War, Nixon is still president, and the cold war is in full effect. It begins with a murder-mystery before unfolding into a planet-altering conspiracy: When a retired hero is killed, his former teammates must investigate. The conspiracy they uncover will entwine their secret traumas and twisted psychologies, ultimately asking where the fine line is drawn between heroes and villains? […]

    Popularly cited as the point where comics came of age, Watchmen’s sophisticated take on superheroes has been universally acclaimed for its psychological depth and realism. It’s slowly and inevitably become it’s own franchise, spawning a movie, video game, and the Before Watchmen prequel comics.”

    It’s not clear what Lindelof’s “Day One” indicates. Maybe it was the first day of writing or production meetings. Stay tuned for updates on casting, filming, and premiere dates — presuming the project stays on track.

    Want more stuff like this? Like us on Facebook.

  • Ben Affleck: ‘Justice League’ Is ‘Interesting Product of Two Directors’

    The more the merrier, it seems, when it comes to directing “Justice League.”

    The superhero team-up movie started off with Zack Snyder in the director’s chair, but he left the project in May due to a family tragedy. Joss Whedon (“Avengers”) took over reshoots and star Ben Affleck, who plays Batman, calls the directorial team-up fortuitous.

    “The best person we could’ve possibly found was Joss. We got really lucky that he stepped in,” he told Entertainment Weekly.

    It’s unusual for movies to have two different directors (see: the furor over the directorial change-up on the Han Solo “Star Wars” movie). But Affleck believes the Snyder/Whedon mash-up will work.

    It’s “an interesting product of two directors, both with kind of unique visions, both with really strong takes,” he said. “I’ve never had that experience before making a movie. I have to say, I really love working with Zack, and I really love the stuff we’ve done with Joss.”

    Affleck also waved off rumors that the extensive reshoots indicated trouble with the project.

    “I’ve never worked on a movie that didn’t do reshoots,” he said, noting, “‘Argo,’ we did reshoots for a week and a half! Four days on ‘Gone Baby Gone!’”

    “Justice League” opens in theaters November 17.

  • Zack Snyder Thanks Fans for ‘Outpouring of Support’ After Daughter’s Death

    An Alternative View Of The 'Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice' New York PremiereThe past 24 hours have been filled with heartbreaking news, but the silver lining has been the support and love from fans. “Justice League” director Zack Snyder‘s 20-year-old daughter Autumn took her own life in March, but that was just made public yesterday — shortly before the world heard about the deaths at the Manchester Ariana Grande concert.

    Pretty much everyone has spent the last day reaching out with thoughts, prayers, and condolences, but if you were one of the fans who took the time to sent love to Zack Snyder, rest assured that he received it, and he appreciated it.

    Zack Snyder and his ex-wife Denise had four children, including Autumn. Snyder also had two children from a past relationship before marrying Deborah Snyder, with whom he adopted two more children.

    It was revealed yesterday that Zack would be stepping away from “Justice League” to be with his family, with Joss Whedon finishing up the film, which is in post-production and still scheduled for release on November 17.

    Want more stuff like this? Like us on Facebook.