Fresh off of the release of Army of the Dead (pictured above) on Netflix, Zack Snyder has lined up his next film for the streaming platform: Rebel Moon, a space opera that’s inspired by Akira Kurosawa and Star Wars.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Snyder is currently writing the script with his Army of the Dead and 300 collaborators Shay Hatten and Kurt Johnstad, and he’ll produce the project along with Deborah Snyder, under their Stone Quarry label.
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The project is set on a peaceful colony at the edge of space that’s being threatened by a “tyrannical regent named Balisarius.” The colony sends a young woman to seek out warriors to help stave off invasion and save their homeworld from their oppressors. In a statement to THR, Snyder noted that “This is me growing up as an Akira Kurosawa fan, a Star Wars fan,” and that “It’s my love of sci-fi and a giant adventure.”
Snyder has been spoken of alongside Star Wars before. Back in 2012, shortly after Disney acquired Lucasfilm, Snyder was rumored to be one of the directors that they were courting to direct one of the standalone films that the studio had planned (which eventually became Rogue One and Solo). Snyder had reportedly been developing such a film that would have been roughly based on Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, a major influence on George Lucas as he was creating Star Wars. Those rumors were eventually shot down, and nothing ever happened with the project.
Earlier this year while on the PR tour for Army of the Dead, Snyder confirmed that he’d been working on it in 2013, and that he hoped to make it someday. Fast forward to this week, and it looks as though Netflix is eager to keep him busy: They’ve scraped off the Star Wars serial numbers and are looking to reboot the project as an original. From the brief description, the Star Wars influences are certainly there—a planet fighting against an evil empire with a motley crew of warriors.
As Netflix has been hard at work developing its own franchises for its subscribers, building out its own Star Wars-esque universed makes sense, especially given that Disney is doing just that with The Mandalorian and its spinoffs.
Army of the Dead was dumb, but fun. Had tons of energy too. So if Snyder doesn’t go grimdark with his Rogue Moon (Murderbot would watch it), sounds promising.
I’m just excited by the naming of a character with Balisarius since I was named after the great Roman general Belisarius. This is probably the closest I’ll ever see to that name being used by anyone but myself.
Of course they already made this movie in the 1980s, Called “Battle Beyond the Stars” and starring, among others, John-Boy Walton, Napoleon Solo (who was also in the Magnificent Seven, so he must have liked these kind of movies) and Hannibal Smith. As I recall, the special effects were NOT impressive but I haven’t seen it since I was 11.
Sweet! I would love to see someone do something epic for the Sun Eater series.
When it comes to plot hooks you can’t beat the classics – I’ll be interested in seeing what Mr Snyder comes up with when his brain goes to a STAR WARS sort of place (and if they actually have the nerve to cast Mr Hiroyuki Sanada as the local Obi-Wan/Chris/Kambei I shall be delighted – and the poor man will probably cry “QUIT TYPECASTING ME!”).
Hmmm, perhaps we should let Mr Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa out of the Villain Box instead?