"Army of the Dead" director/writer Zack Snyder discusses his upcoming Netflix zombie heist film in this interview with CinemaBlend's Sean O'Connell. Find out how Snyder used Canon dream lenses to create the film's signature shallow depth-of-field shots, why he wanted to make you care about the film's zombie characters and more.
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00:00 That feels like my wheelhouse, taking the most high tech thing and like, you know, getting it dirty.
00:06 They're not what you think they are.
00:08 They're smarter.
00:10 They're faster.
00:12 They're organized.
00:14 What is this?
00:18 It's a goddamn zombie tiger.
00:20 100% I'm in. Yeah.
00:24 Hi, this is Sean O'Connell from CinemaBlend. How are you doing, Zach?
00:29 Hey, Sean. How are you doing, man?
00:31 I am in awe of the zombies you created.
00:34 The detail on them is extraordinary.
00:36 You branch out into zombie tigers, zombie horses.
00:38 I want to know how different the process was of creating the undead from all the way back in Dawn in 2004.
00:44 Has it evolved a lot? Was it easier this time out?
00:48 Certainly, I don't know if it ever gets easier.
00:52 You know, the makeup is difficult and it's hard to do.
00:56 We were just saying that even Rich, you know, he's like five hours every day to get in his makeup.
01:02 And, you know, Rich is awesome because he never complains and he's an animal.
01:06 He just does the work and puts his head down.
01:10 It's unbelievable.
01:12 But it's a hard, hard work and I have huge respect for him.
01:16 And also then having to come out and do this massive performance.
01:20 You know, he's a zombie king.
01:22 He's got no dialogue.
01:24 He's got to make us feel, he's got to make us scared.
01:26 He's got to do all this stuff.
01:28 And so, huge respect for them, that whole team.
01:32 And so, yeah, it's not easier, that's for sure.
01:36 But, you know, if you're going to make a zombie movie, you've got to be into the latex, as they say.
01:44 I want you to elaborate on the point you just brought up.
01:47 Because I thought that ARMY did something that I haven't seen done in a zombie horror film before.
01:51 Is that often times I care just as much for the zombies as characters.
01:55 As I did for your protagonist, your quote-unquote protagonist.
01:59 Yeah, that was 100% my intention.
02:01 I wanted to see if I could, I always feel like the best horror monster movies, you care about the monster.
02:07 You sympathize at least at some point with the monster.
02:09 And I just felt like if we could do that, then we've really kind of crossed some genre bridge that's never been crossed before.
02:15 Zombies, shamblers, the undead, whatever you want to call them.
02:18 When it comes to killing them, it's all about the brain.
02:21 Tell me a bit about the cameras that you were using for this one too, that does the amazing work where you go from a zoom to blur, and the way you blurred your background.
02:33 Yeah, the lenses were these, they're these Canon Dream lenses that were built in the 60s, consumer lenses.
02:42 They open to like a 0.95, so really thin depth of field, that's what sort of creates that thin kind of, you know, and dream like out of focus.
02:53 And the cameras were, they were Red Monstros, Jared Land gave them to me, they're from Red Camera.
03:00 Incredible cameras, I'm going to use them again whenever I can.
03:04 Just really, just really amazing.
03:06 So yeah, sophisticated and with this weird combination of super high tech and super low tech, you know, it feels like my wheelhouse taking the most high tech thing and like, you know, getting it dirty.
03:18 You ready to play?
03:20 There's $200 million in the vault beneath the street.
03:24 Find the safe.
03:26 This should be a simple in and out.
03:29 Whose idea was it to put the Snyder cut canisters in the vault?
03:32 That was my idea, yes indeed.
03:34 This is very funny. This is one of your funniest movies, man.
03:37 I swear to God, I'm laughing at this from the very beginning.
03:40 The opening credits were hysterical. All of it was great.
03:42 I don't want to give too many spoilers away, but there is a sequence with glow sticks in a hallway.
03:47 Yeah.
03:48 Those tense and riveting sequences I've seen in a horror film in years.
03:52 How different is horror tension staged and filmed and edited versus just tension in a regular dramatic film?
03:58 Yeah, I mean, you know, I don't think about it really in comparison.
04:06 I know what I was trying to achieve there with Sam Wynn's character getting kind of, you know, threatening someone and then having that person kind of turn on her or set her up for failure.
04:20 And then also just Sam is an amazing stunt performer and actor and does an amazing job fighting her way almost out of that situation, which is pretty, pretty crazy and cool to see.
04:36 That's heavy, brother. But I dig it.
04:39 Before we wrap, what does it mean to you that this film is getting such a great theatrical distribution?
04:43 It's incredible. It really represents.
04:45 I mean, you have a company like Netflix that can push a button literally and 200 million people have this movie sitting in their house.
04:53 It's incredible to think that those guys are in a position now where they can literally just go, you know what, let's put the movie in theaters because it's a cool movie and people should see it in a theater.
05:04 You know, I think that's a that's a real has been a real breakthrough, I think, in this, you know, I think the confidence of Netflix having so much breadth and width to their distribution platform that they're able to say like, no, this is a cool way to even strengthen the movie more.
05:21 So it's really great.
05:23 I'm going back opening night, man. Can't wait to see it.
05:25 Oh, cheers, bro. That's cool.
05:27 Where do I sign?
05:28 I.