Zack Snyder fans had been anxiously awaiting word on the former DCEU filmmaker's next project, and we recently learned that the Justice League director is set to helm a movie he has been hoping to get into production for over 20 years, The Last Photograph.
This movie will mark quite a departure for the director behind the likes of Watchmen, 300, Dawn of the Dead, and Man of Steel.
Snyder has been sharing production stills from his passion project since he joined Instagram, but to mark his third week on the social media platform, the director posted a stunning never-before-seen shot of Henry Cavill's Man of Steel from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
The #RestoreTheSnyderVerse faithful remain hopeful that Snyder will step behind the camera for another DC Comics-based film at some point, and, not too surprisingly, this photo - and the "Henry Cavil is Superman" caption - has stirred them up again.
James Gunn and Zack Snyder have been in contact since the news that the DCEU was being rebooted as the DCU was announced, but the chances of the latter returning to the fold seem pretty slim. Still, the fact that Gunn and DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran will continue to develop Elseworlds projects means we can't completely rule anything out.
“You know, I’m a pretty open book. I really feel like, you know, if the characters are treated with reverence, and mythologically correct, then I’m down. I’m in,” Snyder said when asked about the DCU relaunch last year. “Let’s see what happens. I’m pretty excited. I mean, we’re going to get Superman pretty soon, so we’ll see what that’s like.”
When asked on Threads if he'd seen Snyder's comments about being "excited for the DCU," Gunn responded: “I didn’t, but I knew it already because he’s texted me. He’s been incredibly supportive throughout this process."
The official synopsis for The Last Photograph reads:
“An ex-DEA operative must return to the mountains of South America in an effort to find his missing niece and nephew, following the brutal murders of their diplomat parents. Enlisting the help of a washed-up junkie war photographer, the only person to have seen the face of the killers, he sets out, determined to find the children and the truth, but soon learns he must also face the ghosts of his past. Their journey into the unknown takes them further and further away from civilization, bringing into question everything they believe, while slowly eroding the distinction between real and surreal.”
The project has undergone some significant changes since Snyder first started developing it over two decades ago. The setting used to be Afghanistan, with the story following a war correspondent emerging as the lone survivor of an attack on a group of Americans. Christian Bale and Sean Penn were originally attached to star.
“The idea of taking camera in hand and simply making a movie in an intimate way is very appealing to me,” Snyder said in a statement. “The Last Photograph is a meditation of life and death, embodying some of the trials that I have experienced in my own life and the exploration of those ideas through image making.”
Snyder has other projects in various stages of development, including MMA movie Brawler, and an action thriller centered around the LAPD.