Justice League director Zack Snyder has finally revealed a first look at The Last Photograph, his long-gestating passion project, which has been in development for more than two decades.
Snyder took to social media moments ago to share the first teaser for the movie, offering a brief but intriguing glimpse at what he's been working on away from the superhero and sci-fi blockbusters that have dominated much of his career. The filmmaker accompanied the footage with the promise that we'll get the full trailer soon.
While the teaser doesn't reveal much about the movie's story, it immediately establishes a very different tone from Snyder's recent work. The Last Photograph is a drama/thriller rather than another large-scale genre spectacle, and a more intimate story should allow him to explore some very different territory as a filmmaker.
The movie stars Stuart Martin and Fra Fee, who previously worked with Snyder on Netflix's Rebel Moon movies. Martin plays Ethan Black, a former DEA operative who travels into the mountains of South America after his diplomat brother and sister-in-law are murdered. Their children, Ethan's niece and nephew, subsequently disappear, prompting him to embark on a dangerous search for them.
Ethan isn't alone on that journey. He is joined by a troubled war photographer who witnessed the murders, with the pair forced to confront their respective pasts as their search takes increasingly surreal turns. Snyder's latest movie looks set to explore grief, trauma, and guilt, meaning there should be a little more meat on the bone than his other post-DCEU projects, Rebel Moon and Army of the Dead.
Here's the official synopsis for The Last Photograph:
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 civilisation, bringing into question everything they believe, while slowly eroding the distinction between real and surreal.
The movie also reunites Snyder with several of his frequent collaborators. Kurt Johnstad, who worked with him on 300 and Rebel Moon, wrote the screenplay from an original story by Snyder, while Hans Zimmer is among the composers working on the score. Snyder also served as cinematographer, making The Last Photograph especially personal for him.
"The idea of taking a camera in hand and simply making a movie in an intimate way is very appealing to me," Snyder previously said. "The Last Photograph is a meditation on 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."
The Last Photograph doesn't have a confirmed release date, and it's unclear where it will be available to watch.