“Army of the Dead” is the new Zack Snyder flick that premiered on Netflix this Friday.
The film is a zombie heist film that tries to give a new spin on the tired zombie film. Let’s dive into some trivia and facts about the new movie.
- Army of the Dead is a 2021 American zombie heist film
- It is directed by Zack Snyder
- With a screenplay by Snyder, Shay Hatten, and Joby Harold
- The film is based on Snyder’s screen story
- The film stars an ensemble cast that consists of Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, Matthias Schweighöfer, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tig Notaro, Raúl Castillo, Huma Qureshi, and Garret Dillahunt
- The film was announced in 2007
- It spent several years in development hell at Warner Bros. before having the rights bought by Netflix in 2019
- Snyder was announced as director, and the cast joined over the next several months
- Filming began in July 2019, taking place in Los Angeles, New Mexico, and New Jersey; Snyder acted as his own cinematographer on the film
- Chris D’Elia was originally cast in the film
- After several sexual misconduct accusations were made against him in August 2020, Tig Notaro was hired to replace his character and reshot his scenes using green screen and body doubles
- Army of the Dead was released in select theaters in the United States on May 14, 2021
- It started streaming digitally on Netflix from May 21
- The film received praise from critics for “the action, humor, and diversity of the cast”
- But the runtime and “attempts at more emotional content” were criticized
- The project was first announced in March 2007, with Zack Snyder and Joby Harold working on the script
- Universal Studios and Warner Bros. Entertainment were on board to co-produce the project.
- In 2008, Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. signed on to serve as director
- By January 2019, after lingering in development hell for a number of years, Netflix acquired the distribution rights to the project from Warner Bros. with Snyder directing
- The filmmaker also serves as co-screenwriter with Shay Hatten, based on the story treatment by Snyder and Harold
- The film entered principal photography in mid-2019
- It has a reported budget of $90 million
- Dave Bautista was cast in April 2019
- While Ella Purnell, Ana de la Reguera, Theo Rossi, and Huma Qureshi joined the cast in May
- In July 2019, Garret Dillahunt, Raúl Castillo, Omari Hardwick, Chris D’Elia, Hiroyuki Sanada, Nora Arnezeder, Matthias Schweighöfer, Samantha Jo and Rich Cetrone joined the cast of the film
- In August 2020, Tig Notaro was announced to replace D’Elia, who was cut from the film due to sexual misconduct allegations
- As of March 2021, Notaro has been inserted into the film through a combination of reshooting scenes opposite an acting partner and also using digital compositing to insert her into the scene due to COVID-19 safety protocols restricting Snyder from reshooting scenes with the cast
- Principal photography began on July 15, 2019, in Los Angeles, California, and Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Filming also took place at the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey which had been closed since 2014
- Art Direction of the Film was done by Darshankumar Joshi, Geoffrey S. Grimsman and Brett McKenzie
- Snyder served as his own cinematographer
- He shot the film with custom-made Red Digital Cinema cameras
- By March 2021, Snyder confirmed that work on the film had officially been completed
- Army of the Dead was digitally released by Netflix on May 21, 2021
- The film also played in about 330 Cinemark theaters and 270 other locations the week prior to its digital release
- It was just the second time Netflix allowed one of its films to be played in a chain theater following The Christmas Chronicles 2
- A making-of documentary was added alongside the release on Netflix called Creating an Army of the Dead
- The film made $290,000 on its first day of release
- And $780,000 over its opening weekend at 430–600 theaters
- The figure was below industry projections, which had estimated a $1.5–2 million debut based on pre-sales
- This is still the best theatrical opening for a Netflix film, topping Roma’s $200,000 five-day frame in November 2018
- In September 2020, it was announced that a prequel film and an anime-style television series are in development to expand the franchise
- Matthias Schweighöfer will direct and star in Army of Thieves
- This takes place before the events of Army of the Dead and focuses on Schweighöfer’s character, Ludwig Dieter
- The film will also star Nathalie Emmanuel, Guz Khan, Ruby O. Fee, Stuart Martin, Jonathan Cohen, Noemie Nakai and Peter Simonischek
- The film began development in October 2020
- Filming wrapped in December 2020
- The anime-style series will be titled Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas
- It will center around some of the characters from Army of the Dead
- It will be set during the early phases of the zombie outbreak
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