Zack Snyder is finally set to helm a movie he has been hoping to direct for over 20 years, and it marks a big departure for the filmmaker behind the likes of Man of Steel, Army of the Dead, Watchmen, and Rebel Moon.
Snyder will begin filming his passion project, The Last Photograph, next month. The indie war drama will star Stuart Martin and Fra Free, both of whom appeared in the Rebel Moon movies.
Production is expected to take place in several locations, including Iceland, Colombia, and Los Angeles.
Snyder is also producing with creative partner and wife Deborah Snyder and Wesley Coller via their Stone Quarry banner. Gianni Nunnari and his Hollywood Gang Productions company are also on board. Longtime Snyder colleague Kurt Johnstad wrote the script, which is based on an original story from Snyder.
Hans Zimmer, Steven Doar and Omer Benyamin will compose the score.
The official synopsis reads:
“An ex-DEA operative must return to the mountains of South America in an effort to find his missing niece and nephew, following the brutal murders of their diplomat parents. Enlisting the help of a washed-up junkie war photographer, the only person to have seen the face of the killers, he sets out, determined to find the children and the truth, but soon learns he must also face the ghosts of his past. Their journey into the unknown takes them further and further away from civilization, bringing into question everything they believe, while slowly eroding the distinction between real and surreal.”
The project has undergone some significant changes since Snyder first started developing it over two decades ago. The setting used to be Afghanistan, with the story following a war correspondent emerging as the lone survivor of an attack on a group of Americans. Christian Bale and Sean Penn were originally attached to star.
“The idea of taking camera in hand and simply making a movie in an intimate way is very appealing to me,” Snyder said in a statement. “The Last Photograph is a meditation of life and death, embodying some of the trials that I have experienced in my own life and the exploration of those ideas through image making.”
Snyder has other projects in various stages of development, including MMA movie Brawler, and an action thriller centered around the LAPD.
What do you make of this news? Were you hoping Snyder would stay in the sci-fi/fantasy realm? Drop us a comment down below.