Zack Snyder’s Next Venture is a Zombie Heist Movie

Zack Snyder, director of movies such as 300, Watchmen, Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, returns to the movies with his next venture, Army of the Dead. Starring Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi and Chris D’Elia, Army of the Dead is a zombie heist movie, where a group of mercenaries plan to rob a Los Angeles casino in the middle of a zombie attack. This movie will be released on Netflix and will definitely join the collection of the best films related to casinos. It will reportedly be a sequel to the 2004 film Dawn of the Dead, which marked Snyder’s directorial debut. Army of the Dead has a supposed budget of $90 million, and began filming in July 2019.

Snyder has had a difficult last couple of years, with the director having to step away from post-production on Justice League following the suicide of his teenage daughter. This will be one of his first ventures since then, and audiences will be excited to see his take on the zombie-apocalypse genre, having started out his career with such a movie. The cast is an interesting mix of action heroes in Bautista and comedy specialists such as D’Elia and Purnell, which would be perfect for a movie such as this. It will also mark the first venture for Snyder and his wife, Deborah’s, rebranded production company, Stone Quarry.

While this project was initially being helmed by Warner Bros., with whom Snyder has had an excellent relationship, having been front and center of their DC Universe catalogue of superhero movies, it was eventually taken over by Netflix, who are backing this movie to the hilt, as evidenced by the budget. Another interesting facet is that Army of the Dead will see Snyder return to directing from close quarters and actually get the camera in-hand, as opposed to the CGI-dominated superhero movies he has helmed recently. The director is thrilled to be returning to the business, telling The Hollywood Reporter that “No one’s ever let me completely loose [like this].”

Snyder’s reputation was made in Hollywood on the back of his comic-book adaptations of 300 and Watchmen, and then his ability to bring the larger-than-life comic book stories of Batman and Superman to the big screen with the DC Universe movies. But, as his debut film shows, he also excels at this particular genre, and it is one he is immensely excited about. Speaking again to The Hollywood Reporter, he said – “I love to honor canon and the works of art,” he says of his adaptations, “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.”

With an interesting cast and a director who can’t wait to get back to the game, Army of the Dead could be one of Netflix’s cannier bets in recent times.