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Zack Snyder (b. March 1, 1966) is the director of several dark, epic blockbuster movies. He is best known as the creator of the DC Extended Universe, and directing films such as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Zack Snyder's Justice League for DC Studios.

Professional History

Zack Snyder is a filmmaker known for his dark, epic style, characterized by frequent slow motion, heavy shadows, and the massive look of the production. He has produced most of his films with his wife, Deborah Snyder, sometimes having his son Eli cameo in them, and has been working frequently in the blockbuster industry since 2004. His works are often divisive among audiences and critics, with many praising them for their dark, mature themes and style, and others deriding his work as edgy nonsense.

After directing the universally beloved and successful 300 for Warner Bros, Snyder was chosen to direct the cinematic adaptation of Alan Moore's seminal Watchmen, and created a film that once again divided both longtime fans of the comic and new audiences. After making two more movies, Snyder returned to the world of DC to helm Man of Steel, a dark retelling of Superman's origin and the first film in DC's new cinematic universe, the DC Extended Universe. The film was a box office hit, and as usual divided the opinions of those who saw it, some loving it and some hating it.

Regardless, Warner Bros. pushed forward with the sequel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, also directed by Snyder, and allowed him to plan out a five film arc for a saga of DC films starring the Justice League, as well as help write the upcoming Wonder Woman film. However, thirty minutes were cut from Dawn of Justice before it was released to theaters, and the movie was despised by critics and audiences for its overly serious tone and nonsensical plot, only gaining a cult following after the extended director's cut was released on Blu-ray months later. Panicking, Warner Bros. founded DC Films, a film branch meant to organize their DC projects, and heavily rewrote and reshot David Ayer's Suicide Squad, which they feared would be criticized for also being too dark, to be more comedic, which resulted in that film floundering critically as well.

At this point, Snyder was at work directing Justice League, the third part of his five part saga, and was told by Warner Bros. to make it more lighthearted and shorter. Snyder ignored their advice and shot the film his way, resulting a five hour cut that he trimmed down to two and a half hours. Warner Bros. deemed this version "unwatchable" and told him to start from scratch, but just as these reshoots began, Snyder's daughter tragically took her own life, and he was forced to depart the project to spend time with his family.

Running low on both time and money, Warner Bros. got Joss Whedon, who was penning a Batgirl script for them at the time, and asked him to rewrite and reshoot the film his way. As such, only a small amount of Snyder's original footage was used in the film, the rest being new material built around the backbone of Snyder's original story, and the movie was released to the criticisms of tonal whiplash and unfinished effects. Meanwhile, Snyder went to Netflix to work on his next film, Army of the Dead, away from the editorials of DC.

Over the next three years, Snyder teased images and storyboards from his original version of Justice League, and convinced much of the internet that it would be worth seeing. A massive internet campaign dubbed "Release the Snyder Cut" began, a gargantuan petition for Warner Bros. to complete Snyder's original version and release it to the public. And finally, during a virtual watch party of Man of Steel in 2020, Snyder announced that his four hour director's cut of the film, entitled Zack Snyder's Justice League, would release in 2021 on HBO Max. When the film finally came out, it quickly became one of Max's most watched original projects, and easily became one of Snyder's most beloved films.

Later that year, Snyder released Army of the Dead on Netflix to similar praise, and with an entire universe of projects set to come out after it. He later guest-starred as himself on Teen Titans Go! in the episode "365!", which referenced nearly all his works, both mocking and paying homage to them. Currently, Snyder is working on postproduction for his science fiction epic, Rebel Moon, set to come out in late 2023, and is developing Rebel Moon, Part Two and a sequel to Army of the Dead entitled Planet of the Dead. He has not publicly expressed any interest in returning to DC Films, now rebranded to DC Studios.


Work History

Acting Credits

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice March 25, 2016 Treacherous Knightmare soldier
Bruce Wayne[1]
Wonder Woman June 2, 2017 British Lewis gunner
Zack Snyder's Justice League March 18, 2021 Fred & Ginger Coffee patron
Teen Titans Go! 2013- Himself
     "365!" September 16, 2022 Himself

Trivia

External Links

References

  1. In the scene where Bruce clones Anatoli Knyazev's phone, the hands shown cloning the phone are Snyder's
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