The have been revealed for Zack Snyder’s space opera movie.
18.12.2023 - 19:33 / polygon.com / Zack Snyder
Zack Snyder is no stranger to remixing past pop history. From rewiring zombie tropes to dimensionalizing comic book drawings to bringing DC’s Justice League to the screen for the first time, the man loves playing in other people’s sandboxes. So what was the draw of carving out his own bespoke universe with Rebel Moon, his new Netflix franchise-starter?
“I was looking for something that was really pushing the sci-fi fantasy elements to their extreme,” Snyder tells Polygon. “I think that sci-fi fantasy, at its highest level, is like the ultimate genre. You can’t go any more genre than sci-fi fantasy. You hit your head on the roof of genre when you go to that one. And so that was really what I was hoping for, to give this kind of deep genre cinema experience that can only be obtained when going to this level.”
In that way, Rebel Moon feels more like Snyder’s Sucker Punch than his stricter adaptations. The galaxy-bound drama is wall-to-wall images and influences, from its core as a riff on Akira Kurosawa’s classic movie Seven Samurai to its obvious roots as an abandoned Star Wars pitch. But where Sucker Punch is driven by grimy, adolescent impulses, Rebel Moon feels like a solar system spun together by an older filmmaker who has spent time on the development grind. The film’s hero, Kora (Sofia Boutella), zips around the galaxy on a quest to find fighters who can protect her homeworld, and each planet she arrives on feels like a different Snyder movie.
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This is not a coincidence, according to the director. Unlike, say, George R.R. Martin, who seems to lay world-building bricks for years before actually writing his fantasy stories, Snyder and his cohorts established the universe of Rebel Moon by throwing out tons of visual ideas and allowing character arcs and emotional value to expand them into cinematic moments.
Partway through the first Rebel Moon movie, A Child of Fire, Kora and her rogue party meet Nemesis (Doona Bae), a sword fighter in Vampire Hunter D threads, on a mission to free a kidnapped child from the clutches of Harmada, a spider-woman hybrid who just wants to be a good mommy. Snyder says the idea was to originally have the creature just be a full-blown talking spider, but to create conflict in what would ultimately be a sword fight, he wanted the audience to feel the arachnid’s motherly desires. So he called his old friend and Sucker Punch star Jena Malone.
“I was like, ‘Jenna, can you do this spider character? Because I really want them to be sympathetic.’ She is the only person I know that can be tough and sympathetic at the same time. She was like, ‘OK, sounds cool.’” The dream required special makeup effects and puppet designer Justin Raleigh to design a rig that makes Malone
The have been revealed for Zack Snyder’s space opera movie.
The first trailer for Rebel Moon: The Scargiver quietly dropped on Christmas Day, but even with 1 million views and counting, it’s unclear if Netflix got a prized gift in its stocking or lump of coal.
Zack Snyder has always been obsessed with heroes. And whether it’s the unlikely heroes of Rebel Moon and Army of the Dead or his stint in the DC Universe, that obsession always comes out in his work. But to see how deeply the themes of mythological heroes run in his films, you have to go all the way back to the beginning of his career and the first movie he ever made, a Michael Jordan docu-fiction hybrid called Playground. It’s available for digital rental or purchase on Prime Video (or you can find it on YouTube).
Happy December, Polygon readers! It’s the last weekend before the Christmas holiday, and we’ve got a whole sack full of exciting new releases on streaming and VOD for you!
There may not be a single movie more influential than Seven Samurai, and for good reason. Akira Kurosawa’s epic tale of a group of warriors hired by a village to protect them from bandits is so consequential in the history of global cinema that it’s impossible to fully track all the movies and shows that stem from it.
is now out in theaters and many potential viewers want to know more about the “” that has helped earn the movie an R rating. Here’s what you need to know about the and whether and/or in the film. For audiences concerned about the level of nudity in the movie, here’s a breakdown of what you can expect to see.
Zack Snyder was not running into the Justice League problem with his new Netflix movie Rebel Moon. From the beginning, the plan wasalways to cut two different versions of the film: a PG-13 cut for its premiere release that could play to a larger audience, and an R-rated cut that would offer a more unfiltered Snyder-y take on the sci-fi fantasy saga. Was it a content ploy? A new mode for studios to take with filmmakers to avoid warring in the edit room? Both?
The festive period is finally upon us, and what better time is there to kick back on the sofa and work through your watch list? As usual, too, this Christmas is jam-packed full of great new releases on streaming, meaning that there will be plenty to keep you occupied after stuffing yourself with turkey. Among the highlights are a festive Doctor Who special to kick off Ncuti Gatwa's season as the Time Lord as well as Zack Snyder's hugely-anticipated new sci-fi adventure, Rebel Moon Part One.
Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver has an action-packed, epic new trailer – and it teases a massive battle still to come.
It should come as no surprise that Zack Snyder is up for making a Fortnite movie, if anyone is shopping around for a director. It would be a licence to print money. It could be a complete stinker and it would still probably be the most watched movie of all time. If Epic's interested, I'd also be down for making one. I need the cash.
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Zack Snyder previously revealed his love for Fortnite, and now he has expressed interest in turning the popular video game into a movie.