Zack Snyder is no stranger to the horror genre. The highly stylized director burst onto the scene with his 2004 remake of George A. Romero’s seminal classic, Dawn of the Dead. What Snyder’s version may have lacked in substance, it made up for in style, introducing audiences to the director’s trademark blend of slow-motion balletics and gory action. In the decades since that film, Snyder has become an increasingly infamous and controversial figure. He made the leap from Dawn of the Dead to 300 and then to Watchmen. From there, he tried out a few different things, like Sucker Punch or the animated Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, before settling into his unlikely role as the architect of the DCEU, with films like Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and ultimately Justice League.
It can prove difficult to talk about Snyder’s tenure with DC with any degree of nuance in online spaces, but suffice it to say that what began as Snyder really swinging for the fences with seemingly creative freedom soon devolved into an avalanche of studio notes and mandates, all culminating with the director leaving Justice League (or being asked to leave) prior to finishing the film. So suffice it to say that even the filmmaker’s most ardent fans were interested to see what he would do after leaving DC well and truly behind him and getting Zack Snyder’s Justice League out of his system a few years later. However, the answer to that question has been a continuous string of disappointments that don’t look primed to stop anytime soon, as Snyder’s latest film is now struggling to find distribution, despite already being completed.
In the immediate aftermath of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the director set up shop at Netflix, where he was set to launch a massive interconnected series of science-fiction epics in the form of his Rebel Moon franchise. The immediate plans were for two films, with two iterations of each film, a regular and an unrated director’s cut, each with its own distinct subtitle.
In addition to this, Snyder spoke of plans for multiple additional live-action films, animated tie-ins, and more. However, all of that seemingly fell apart after every iteration of the Rebel Moon films was met with horrendous responses from fans, critics, and general audiences alike. The films underperformed in every way, and the result was Netflix unceremoniously brushing them under the rug by the time the latter films were even releasing.
So what would Snyder do now to get his mojo back, so to speak? Well, apparently, he opted to go out into the jungle with a select few Rebel Moon cast members and film a long-gestating passion project, The Last Photograph, of his own accord. This was a project that Snyder had been attempting to find time for since Dawn of the Dead, and he’s now completed it… but no one seems particularly keen to acquire it or release it. Snyder has referred to the film as “my Apocalypse Now,” and insiders report that the film is both excessively gory and has “quality issues.”
It remains to be seen what will come of The Last Photograph, but if Snyder is truly this passionate about getting the project in theaters, he could always follow the lead of more independently minded creators like Mark Fischbach, who got Iron Lung in theaters across the country all on his own. Whatever happens with Snyder’s The Last Photograph, I’m sure the story behind it will wind up being every bit as fascinating as what’s onscreen, as seems to be the case with Snyder’s career these days.
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