REBEL MOON
AFTER GESTATING IN ZACK SNYDER’S BR AIN FOR OVER 20 YEARS, IS FINALLY A PPROACHING. THE DIR ECTOR TALKS US THROUGH HIS NOT-STAR WARS SCI-FI
THEY’RE SWORDS!” DEBORAH Snyder, one of Rebel Moon’s producers, bellows affirmatively. SFX is rightly getting told off for calling the weapons Doona Bae’s cyborg swordsman wields in the intergalactic epic a pair of lightsabers. “They’re space swords, let’s be honest,” the movie’s director – and Snyder’s husband – Zack adds with a laugh.
It’s a fair mistake to make. Rebel Moon was, after all, at one point pitched to Lucasfilm as a potential new instalment in the Star Wars saga. The idea that eventually became Rebel Moon, however, had been kicking around in Zack’s head for over 20 years, dating back to his time in college, when, as an assignment, he was tasked with pitching a movie.
STELLAR CONFLICTS
“I pitched The Dirty Dozen in space, Seven Samurai in space, an underdog story where you build a team to defend the underprivileged from galactic imperialists,” he says.
Wesley Coller, another of Rebel Moon’s producers who has been working with the Snyders for over 25 years, confirms that Zack had been talking about his aspirations to make a sci-fi adventure since the early 2000s. Yet only when Lucasfilm came along did it start taking shape, with the space samurai swapped out for wayward Jedi. Things didn’t work out; negotiations were initially taking place pre-Disney merger and once the House of Mouse took over, Snyder’s vision didn’t fit.
“I read in the paper that Star Wars had sold to Disney and thought, ‘I think I’m out,’” Zack says now. “But I was completely swamped with Man Of Steel, and then Batman v Superman – it wasn’t like I was available to do anything.” The idea was placed on the back burner once more, but Snyder couldn’t let it go. “After BvS, I was chilling and just thought, ‘Maybe I’ll start working on this thing,’” he continues. “It was called The Five and we talked about making it a videogame.”
“We also talked about making it television,” Deborah interjects.
By the time Rebel Moon was being pitched as a TV show, Justice League had reached cinemas. Snyder left the project before its release and Joss Whedon took over reshoots, changing the plot and tone drastically. The situation was, by most accounts, unpleasant.
“Zack had come off the worst professional experience of his life,” Eric Newman, who produced Snyder’s Dawn Of The Dead remake and is a co-producer on Rebel Moon, says of Justice League. The result w
