“I thought they were very particular”: Zack Snyder Agrees With Wife for Star Wars Rejecting His Pitch, Disses $51B Franchise Spectacularly Instead
Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnston, and Shay Hatten wrote the screenplay for the planned American epic space opera Rebel Moon. The movie will have a limited theatrical release and Netflix distribution in December. The second installment of the movie will be released in April 2024, according to previous reports.
Rebel Moon has reportedly been in development for more than 20 years, and before the streaming behemoth chose to debut it in December, it underwent numerous iterations. The space opera is being compared to George Lucas’ Star Wars, which served as one of Zack Snyder’s sources of inspiration while he was developing Rebel Moon, and the film’s producer has admitted that she is very happy that Snyder’s Star Wars idea was never picked up.
Eric Newman says Rebel Moon emerged from the ashes of Zack Snyder’s scrapped Star Wars movie
During an interview with Slash Film, producer of Rebel Moon Eric Newman shared that the movie that is scheduled for December release is the result of Zack Snyder’s scrapped Star Wars movie for which he was working with Lucasfilm.
Akira Kurpsawa’s Seven Samurai loosely inspired the scrapped project and Newman stated that he had always believed in the idea of it and was thrilled to see how Snyder would develop it as an original movie instead of relying on Star Wars mythology.
He said, “I remember [Snyder] calling me at some point, and this has got to be 15 years ago, saying, ‘I’m thinking of doing Seven Jedi, in the Star Wars universe.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a cool idea.’ Then, a few years later, he calls me and goes, ‘You know, I think it could be a television show.’ I’m like, ‘Yes, let’s do this! F**k ‘Star Wars!’ Let’s do this as a TV show.’”
Also read: Zack Snyder Reveals Rebel Moon Won’t Repeat a Star Wars Blunder
Deborah Snyder explains she never wanted Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon to be a Star Wars movie
During the question and answer session, Deborah Snyder, who is not only Zack Snyder’s wife but also one of the producers, said that the comparison between Rebel Moon and Star Wars is not ideal. She explained,
“Once, it was a Star Wars film, and I never wanted it to be. I remember, I said to Zack, ‘I just feel like your hands are going to be tied so much in what that IP is,’ even though it kind of lived outside of it. So I was kind of happy when that fell apart, because I always felt like it was better.”
She further added that they learned so much through all of their years working with superheroes and creating those worlds that now they are doing something original and described the movie as science fantasy rather than science fiction.
Zack Snyder has revealed that Warner Bros. executives knocked his project down twice, adding that they did try and sell Rebel Moon as a video game, as a movie, but they turned it down. They also explained that, unlike Star Wars, Rebel Moon will be represented in a unique way, adding,
“I always laugh that in Star Wars, it just so happens that the native costumes of this weird Tatooine, this weird planet in the middle of nowhere, happen to be the fashion of the entire universe. I thought they were very particular. I guess that’s fine. When you make a sci-fi movie, it’s like, “Okay, well, what is the world? What does the home planet look like?”
Netflix is already planning to release Zack Snyder’s cut
According to the director, it was the streaming giant who had initially suggested he make extended cuts from the movie, which was something he was very ecstatic about. He said,
“I was like, ‘That’s cool. That makes it a lot easier than this.’ Because it’s one of those things that I guess I was always inspired by movies like ‘Brazil,’ or there’s a great history of director’s cuts that are just cool. For me, when you make a movie, you have a lot of voices in your own creative mind telling you what would be narratively just the strongest solution. And then you have this other tug on you — I do, anyway — that is like, ‘Well, what if there’s rabbit holes that are really amazing to go down and just kind of learn about different aspects of the characters?'”
He also shared in Polygon, “I can’t help myself. I was always inspired by movies like Brazil. There’s a great history of director’s cuts. It’s like another movie to discover. There’s this other tug, rabbit holes, it’s amazing. For me, with my drawings, there ends up being a lot of that to tell a deeper-dive story. With director’s cuts I’ve done in the past, in a vacuum, that’s how the movie would exist. It’s part of my relationship with fans.”
Deborah Snyder also said that the first cut would be the family-friendly PG-13 as opposed to the extended cut, which would be R-rated. She explained that she is think really excited for audience to witness both movies and give them a chance to have their kids see one of them, which they’re very excited about, and also gives the hardcore fans a place to go.
Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire premieres on Netflix on December 22, 2023.
Source: Slash Film
