Army of the Dead: Zack Snyder Set Visit Interview | Screen Rant
Zack Synder is having a huge year in 2021 with the Snyder Cut finally being released as Zack Snyder's Justice League, and now, just a few months later, his next big movie Army of the Dead is hitting Netflix. Back in 2019, while Army of the Dead was shooting at the abandoned Showboat Casino in Atlantic City, NJ, Screen Rant visited the set and sat down with Snyder to talk about the film.
Snyder isn't only going back to his roots with a return to the zombie genre, but he's also taking a page from his days directing commercials by serving as the director of photography and camera operator in addition to his directorial duties (while also getting credits as a writer and producer). Snyder has said Army of the Dead was the most fun production he's had in a while, and the level of freedom and control he had is a big reason why, and it was evident during our discussion.
We even had a chance to ask a few questions about the Snyder Cut of Justice League, which has since been released on HBO Max as Zack Snyder's Justice League, although his answers give unique insight into his thoughts on the situation during a time when he hadn't yet done any interviews on the subject.
What did it mean to casino a place you could shoot in?
It was super hard. You can imagine that Vegas isn’t shutting down their entire floor for astudio. Here at the Showboat it’s so hard to shut the power off. Casinos aren’t designed to havethe lights switched off. Literally, they didn’t know where the switches were. It was crazy. I waslike, ‘Can you guys shut the lights off?’ and they were like, ‘What?’ The lights hadn’t been off for20 years. You can imagine that in a bigger casino that has people in it that, that would’ve beenproblematic. But, anyway, it’s worked out really great. And it’s kinda fun being in Atlantic City. There is a little patina on the old showboat. Seems haunted a little bit.
Feels a little bit creepy.
I didn’t want to say that. They’ve been very kind. They’ve been very kind to us.
You weren’t originally at Showboat, right? You were at Atlantic? Is this a better venue, or...?
We were still shooting a bunch over there, but with the casino floor itself had a lot ofconstruction going on and it ended up not having the length and breadth that we had here. Itneeds a big scale, so it’s worked out. It’s funny that the two casinos happen to be kinda close toeach other. The Trump was also a possibility, but it didn’t work out. That has a really cool… I saw some pictures. It’s epic. It has that, like, brutalist architecture. It’s pretty cool. But yeah, we didn’t get it. They wouldn’t let us in.
It’s been 15 years since Dawn of the Dead. Has it been fun to return to the zombie genre?
It’s been, well, when we did Dawn [of the Dead] it was a slightly genre-busting movie in that I was a fan of the original and so didn’t want to remake the movie exactly, but certainly wanted to hit the tropes and all the sort of different aspects of a zombie movie that make it fun and or scary and or, you know, social commentary-whatever you want to say about the genre. Those were all things that I was super into. But, the movie itself, I wanted to be careful not to destroy the original movie-not destroy... but you know when you remake something exactly there can be some confusion later about where the ideas come from and how they’re formed and stuff like that. So, I was trying as best I could to homage the movie, you know. It was more like a reference to the original than it was a straight remake, which I find kind of a fun area to be in.
And, with this movie it’s a full genre exploration, whether it be like-the movie really was inspired by movies like Escape From New York, or Aliens, Cameron’s Aliens, Robocop, you know, that world. It’s very much a genre deconstruction in the sense that I love all the tropes, so I’m constantly trying to subvert the tropes by having them not finish as they would. So, you give them a ‘this is what would normally happen’ until you get all the energy moving in the direction of what the trope and how the trope works in the genre and then you have to, at the last second, subvert it, so that it does something else and kind of links up with another one. So, in that way I think the movie has been slightly complicated in the rendering of that tone, that idea. It’s been really fun and rewarding and really cool.
You know, we have different zombie types in the movie. Even in the very first conceptualizing of the movie there were gonna be these sort of evolved zombies. I thought it would be cool if there was a way to have a little bit of sympathy for the bad guy, if you will. It’s always cool when the monster-when you feel a little bit conflicted about what’s happening to the monster, right? But, that’s really hard with a straight shambler, normal zombies-it’s hard tohave sympathy. In a weird way, even the guys who kill them seem like they’re doing them a favor a little bit. And, so I thought, if we were able to create this other class of zombie that was semi-conscious…we treat them kind of like wolves, like a dog. Not necessarily fully realized where they talk or anything, but they can organize. Zeus, you know, he rides a horse (laughs). He has a staff and he’s probably the smartest of all of them. Whether he has hopes or dreams... I’m not sure (laughs). Our humans are like... they give zero f**** about his world. It’s kind of a fun relationship between him and the team. That was a fun thing to think about. Because the film, at its heart, is the relationship between Dave [Bautista] and his daughter, trying to mend their relationship throughout the course of the movie. She shouldn’t have been on the mission but she kinda tricked him into it. So, there’s this really small relationship movie about a father who abandoned his child and is trying to make it right. On top of that is pure genre mayhem insanity.
And you went to the digital side…
I did indeed.
What’s that been like? How has it changed production?
It’s been awesome, I can say that. Jared at RED Camera about two years ago gave me one of his Monstro cameras to mess around with. So, I’ve been shooting with it for quite a while. And, when the movie came up, I talked to him and told him I wanted to shoot it in these crazy, low-light scenarios and would that be a thing that you... the camera he gave me and the experiments I’ve done with it are really... it’s kind of the right tool. And also, I just felt like if I was gonna shoot the movie myself, I wanted a manageable tool. I mean, look, I was a cameraman for commercials for ten years and I shot exclusively on film and never even close to this. But, I will say that the sort of organic nature of the photography and the way I approached it has been a really fun photographic journey, I guess you could say. I haven’t felt nostalgic and remorseful over my lack of motion picture film, though I’m still a huge advocate of that format.
Do you find it more efficient?
There are efficiencies…More efficient? It’s just different, y’know? A sort of different palate. We were shooting-the whole movie wide open, there’s no stop put on on the lens ever on this entire film. We just edited the shit out of everything. When we shoot outside it’s still f/0.95, it’s all wide open all the time. So, the guys are like “yikes.” But, my camera assistants have done an amazing job. The movie’s way more in focus than I thought it was gonna be. I like operating. John Clothier has done every movie since Watchmen with me and he’s the A camera operator and I’m the B camera operator. It’s been fun to shoot.
You’re coming off a decade of more doing big superhero films and now you’re back doing a zombie genre pic. What does it mean to you coming from that to this now?
Yeah, it’s fun. You know, we were talking about the process of making a big, giant superhero movie and then your relationship to the photographic process, even the actors and the way the camera’s working. It grows-You grow further and further away from it. Even though, I’d still draw the drawings and draw the shots, but they’re getting made further away. And that’s kind of true of all aspects of the movie. And I think for this, for me, it’s just 100 percent an organic experience where I can take hold of it as a filmmaking process, as a writing process, photographically, as a director, all the things… I find it a joy to get up and work on. There’s no real politics. There’s no real anything, just make the movie as cool as you can, that’s it. In that way, it’s super refreshing. Inspiring.
Deb was saying Netflix has given you way more freedom to just make your movie.
Yeah, collaborative, supportive. There’s been no, like... not to say that they just don’t care…they’re incredibly passionate about it, out of their minds as far as the dailies and the way we’re approaching the movie. They’re not asking me… well, let’s put it this way, they’re very comfortable with the movie that I proposed to them and that’s a cool and great experience. It’s been an amazing relationship thus far.
We still haven’t seen the version of Justice League that you intended.
Sure.
What are your thoughts on that? Is there a point where you want people to focus more on what you’re doing now or what you’re going to do?
Look, this is how I feel about it. Of course I want everyone like, "look, I made this movie, let’s talk about it, that’s what I want, yes, there’s this new thing I made." 100 percent I feel that way. But I will say that I don’t really separate... the work to me is sort of a singular thing and the sort of process is a singular thing. Is there a relationship between this movie and my other films? Of course there is. And like, in the filmography is there a hole? Yeah, there is. That’s just a fact. And so, to have a conversation that fans and/or people who are interested in cinema and stuff be interested in what that is? I don’t know that there’s a time limit on that sort of interest. I sort of see them as two different things. I kind of feel like anyone who’s interested in that movie-whatever that movie was supposed to be and then what I’m doing now. Those things aren’t mutually exclusive. I’m pretty sure that someone who’s interested in that will go see this movie. I don’t think there’s a lot of people who are like, "No, no, I just want to know aboutJustice League and that’s it and I don’t care about what else he does." I don’t think that’s a thing.
So, I guess for me, I find that the people who are supportive of that aspect of whatever Justice League they’re interested in and the movie we’re making now, I feel like the relationship is only that, I made a movie and now I‘m making another movie. And so, someone that’s a fan of that, there’s a lot in this movie that they can get into and think is cool, but I don’t think it diminishes and is not meant to diminish their interest in... Let’s put it this way. I think a lot of people in fandom have sacrificed a lot as far as maintaining their interest in that movie and I don’t want to like, not honor the commitment that people have to that and the interest they have in that because I find it, just personally as a filmmaker and as an artist, whatever, like, incredibly cool and it makes me happy that there’s that much caring about a thing that they don’t even know what it is. So, I find that really awesome. Do I want to drag those people forward with me into the future? Of course. I definitely don’t want anyone to get this impression that I’m saying like, ‘Move on, forget about it!’ Because I think that dishonors the work that so many people have done in fandom and there’s a lot of money that’s been raised and a lot of strong relationships that have been forged out of this, whatever that is, that struggle and I don’t want to dishonor it...
Deborah Snyder: And it’s been super amazing to me how a movement which could be seen as "oh, we want this thing" could create so much awareness for suicide prevention and so much money. It’s super humbling and it’s been really touching to us.
Zack: Incredible, yeah, yeah.
Deborah Snyder: I think that fans are not only showing support for Zack’s art, but something very personal to us. It’s meant a lot to us.
So, do you have hope that they’ll get what they want?
Look, as far as I know, it is what it is. But that doesn’t mean, by any stretch of the imagination, that it’s a completely dead subject. Every now and then something will come out or some piece of information will be shared and there’s an evolution. The truth is, you know, I have faith in the sort of universe. It will be what it will be. So, if that were ever to happen, that’s great. But, I’m here now and shooting this and happy to do it.
But, you feel the fans, right?
100 percent. A hundred percent. You know, it has a pop culture aspect to it that I find interesting as well. This sort of Snyder Cut concept has become like a...
Rob Liefeld just published a comic that has “Release The Snyder Cut” said by one of the characters
This is what I’m talking about
At NYCC they have a billboard in times square.
Like I say, I can’t not say that’s awesome. You just can’t.
You ever thought about just calling Ryan Reynolds and asking him to leak the film?
(laughs) Ryan’s a good guy probably to do it. He’ll take the bullet for it! What are ya gonna do? What’s anyone gonna do to Ryan? He doesn’t care! (laughs). Zero f**** given (laughs). Good idea.
I don't know if you know how big a deal it is that a Filipino-American is starring in an action movie or how much that means to the community. The whole cast is very diverse
I think that’s been an amazing experience with Netflix. They love Dave and Dave’s a big star, but they’re also happy that the rest of the cast is diverse, whether it be Mexico or Germany or France - they love it. I just thought it was cool to just have this amazing diverse cast. There’s an aspect of the movie that takes place in a refugee camp. There's sort of zombie-infested Vegas, and then what happened was they built this refugee camp at the outset of the zombie plague. You can imagine that's the sort of thing that would happen. They start to quarantine people and start to reroute who's infected and who's not. But six years later, the camp still exists. So now it's like this political tool that's, like, the government uses if you have, like, contradictory political views or whatever. They'll stick you in and they'll… they use like a thermometer gun and if you are below 98.6, that's probable cause to put you in. And so, yeah, that's not that far-fetched, I don't think.
So, you know, we always talk about you get pulled over by a cop and if you mouth off then suddenly he's like, oh, sorry oh, you got to go. So, a lot of the people in the refugee camp are sort of the disenfranchised, whether it's a statement about immigration or whether it's a statement about the literal refugee camps around the world like what's happening in different conflicts around the world, but it made sense to me to have it be a sort of internationally diverse cast because of that centerpiece of the movie and that this group that goes in our, like, a mish-mash of, you know, they're mutts. They're all trying to figure out where they fit in. They're kind of all outcast in a weird way. And again, it's a classic, you know, like they're all rogue Samurai. Obvious, but, it's cool. And Dave has been amazing and he's awesome and my movies are really popular in the Philippines anyway, so I'm excited about this added bit, that's really going to take it to the stratosphere, I hope.
He views himself as an anti-Action Hero.
Oh, he totally does, which is cool.
Does it feed sort of into circumventing the genre tropes?
It does perfectly, yeah. And by the way he's so capable. So he's the best anti-action hero who can do any of the action. So it's not... It's cool. It's like having a race car that's like “I don't wanna... I don't race.” And then you push on the gas and it goes super fast. The good part is you get this kind of... You know, he's not afraid to be rough. He's not afraid to not look good all the time. That's cool. And be vulnerable. his daughter, half the time, is just pissed at him and being rude and he just kind of puts his head down and takes it.
A lot of people see this as a sort of re-emergence for you since it's not something that was on your calendar just three years ago. What is the process to you coming to decide that this is the next movie versus anything else you could have done?
Yeah, and there's a bunch of other stuff that we were circling. The reason why I kind of put my energy on this was that we talked about it and I was just… I felt like to do something that I felt like honored my fanbase in a way and kind of was a pure genre experience. You know? I felt like it was a really sort of, it was a movie that I had in my pocket. An idea that I had 10 years ago. I had it. I mentioned it to Netflix and they were like “What? Wait a minute. Say that again? It's a zombie plague… Vegas is quarantined... six years later they go back for the money and Vegas is full of zombies?” And they're like "okay!"
Deborah Snyder: “Can you shoot it this summer?”
Zack: Yeah, “where is this? Where do we... like... can I…?” And it's true every movie is a struggle, right? And I love that about moviemaking. Every movie is a s*** fight and there's no... The smoothest movie is a s*** fight. So the idea that this movie could have this energy behind it. Debbie and Wes [Coller] both love this idea. They’ve loved it for a long time. So when I was like “yeah maybe I'll do army,” they were like “What? Yes! Please!”
Deborah Snyder: “We’ve been waiting!”
Zack: Yeah, and I'd say it allows me, in probably the most obvious way, in the cleanest way, I can make a subversive movie that is, you know, no one has to reach for the symbolisms. It's all there. It's a genre that is about that. Like, a good zombie movie, all the great Romero movies are about, like, it's a mirror where the zombies are us. And I just felt like it’s, for me, a great place to dig my teeth in. So if it wasn't Fountainhead, then this feels like the most obvious, to me, kind of place to go.
I've sort of brought all my small movie approach to it. It's a giant thing, I tried to get at it in a super intimate way that I think will just make it much more, how do you say, oh, it's not made by the committee, you know? Definitely a movie that is incredibly personal, singular, like my eye seeing the movie. That's how close it is. And that way I felt like it was just a great thing to do. And Dave, like, I called Dave and was like “Dave, we're thinking about…” Because it wasn't written for Dave, necessarily, ten years ago. And I just thought about it, I was on the phone with him and I was like “no, you are the guy. You're the lead.” And he was like “wait, what?” He thought I was calling about something else. I was like “do you want to do this?” He was like “f*** yeah.” So it's great. He's great. It's been really fun.
The title of the movie obviously has “of the Dead” in it. Should the Romero or the zombie fans will see that, is that an homage?
Yeah. It has to be “of the Dead.” People have asked me, ”is that like, is this a sequel?” I'm like “no. It's a zombie movie.” And they're like “what what does that mean?” And I'm like, “it’s ‘of the dead.’ It’s ‘something of the dead.’ It just happens to be an army.”
Was it a sequel when it was first developed?
No, no. I Developed it right after Dawn, but not as a sequel. I wanted to do this other evolution in it of the zombies, so I need another trope, I needed another origin story in order to make this other thing work, so I was like, “okay, it can live in his own universe.” And now we're building this universe like nuts, so we'll see. It's kind of fun.
To what extent were your creative choices, particularly visually, driven by the fact that people are going to be watching this in their homes on their TVs instead of in the cinema?
It's funny, because when I made 300 I said there's two ways to watch 300. In IMAX or on your phone. And I said that a long time ago. And I think that, in a weird way, it's kind of still true. Like, this movie... it's funny because I don't really do anything differently necessarily. It's not like I said “maybe we should have a big close-up because they’re are going to watch it on their phone, so the faces should be bigger.” I mean, I suppose that would work, but I never really thought about it. But I do like the idea that I'm not trying to, and that’s not to say this movie wouldn’t, because I don’t need to know, but I told Netflix at the beginning, “look, I'm not interested in trying to fight you for some kind of fake theatrical release or anything like that.” I'm happy and entirely confident and fine with the presentation of the film being at home. Like, people are watching the movie for the first time at home because that's the sort of, that's the relationship that I have. I don't need the movie to... I know what its purpose is and I wanted to satisfy that 100 percent. So, look, if the movie is released theatrically, great. That'll be amazing. But it by no means has that as a necessity for success, in my opinion. Because I think all the sort of… we now can look at a movie like Hurt Locker and it has more views probably than 90% of the films released theatrically and so if the point of the movie is to have people watch it, then somehow Netflix has an advantage because there's literally more people watching. And again, that's not to say the theatrical experience isn’t an amazing thing that I treasure, but this particular project was made by design as a thing I wanted to do for that.
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