I Just Watched The Rebel Moon Teaser While Sitting Next To Zack Snyder

Posted in: Movies, Netflix | Tagged: deborah snyder, netflix, Rebel Moon, zack snyder

Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon: A Child Of Fire is released on the 22nd of December. Rebel Moon: The Scar Giver on the 19th of April 2024.

This morning I found myself in the Soho Hotel just off London’s Dean Street with Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder, the folks from Netflix, a bunch of Brits of my acquaintance, and a trailer for Rebel Moon, their new pair of movies for Netflix. But not the one that has just dropped. Instead, it was a little more gruesome than the one currently racing worldwide. And I watched it, sat directly adjacent to Zack Snyder on my right, Deborah Snyder one seat further, with him eyeing my reactions. I hope I passed.

“I don’t want no trouble” “I’m not here to bring any.” Rebel Moon… a moon is a satellite. Something small that circles something bigger than circles something bigger still. But here, the whole universe will revolve around its smallest member, as one fight seems to have galactic implications—seven Samurai given wings and possibly big smokey jet engines.

So yes, the trailer begins with wheat fields on the planet of Velt, as the robot knight Jimmy walks through it, wearing his horns. The wheat seems to be as big a character as any other, Zack and Deborah talked at length about the efforts they weren’t through to plant wheat a couple of hours outside LA, filling the size of ten football fields. Fake wheat literally wouldn’t cut it, as this was wheat that had to be harvested on screen. It turns out that Zack had a small plot of wheat at home that he could check on rather than having to visit the set every day. And what with the weather and soil issues, the wheat delayed filming for five weeks. It turned them from filmmakers into farmers. That it has pride of place when the trailer begins is to its credit.

Rebel Moon Began When Zack Snyder Was Twelve Years Old

Zack talked about how he began working on this kind of story at the age of twelve, creating with his friends – and while Rebel Moon is not that idea, and his original idea may still see the light one day, it certainly informed Rebel Moon, with elements of putting a team together across space. When it was conceived for the Star Wars Universe, Deborah said that she was against it after working with DC Comics on the Superman, Batman, and Justice League movies and knowing what the canon of those characters meant to their biggest fans. Creating movies with original IP made more sense.

And so Zack and Deborah pitched an entire universe and have gone back further, filling in the history of their universe, mythologies, races, and more; as Zack says, they have “gone completely insane.” So while they intended to pitch a concept, by the time they had got to the meeting after Army Of The Dead, he had already written thirty pages. And it was Deborah who, when told by Netflix that “shorter films do better on our service,” turned around and gave them two films, made back to back, coming out close together as a solution. And the trailer shown covers both of them. Rebel Moon: A Child Of Fire will be released on the 22nd of December 2023, and then Rebel Moon: The Scar Giver on the 19th of April 2024.

It Takes A Village…

Deborah talked about the village they built fully, no facade here, every building had the right interiors, and they had to build the stream running through it. The extras they used to populate the area also stayed with the project through filming, and they all hunkered down, creating a community  – to which they then added giant spaceships.

Deborah talked about the casting of Sofia Boutella as Kora, the lead character, who has to gather the fighters to defend her world. A backup dancer for Madonna back in the day, she treated the fight scenes as choreography, and they didn’t need doubles for any of it – aside from the day when they had to throw the character off scaffolding. Zack Snyder talked about how he had Sogia in mind from the beginning of pre-production but made many assumptions about her that she defeated.

The Robot on a Knight’s Quest Who Is Played by a Knight

The trailer begins with Jimmy The Robot walking through the wheat field, wearing horns, and telling what sounds like a fairy tale, as voiced by Sir Anthony Hopkins. The story of Princess Esa, the royal family who were killed, and everything that followed, jumping from fantasy to sci-fi and back again. Zack Snyder describes him as a quest Knight who has lost the “why” of the quest. He had laid down his weapons when the royal family was assassinated. He was designed for a reason that has gone, a religious soldier who has lost his faith, and he is searching for a reason to live beyond the dogma he was created to protect. They recorded him first and played his lines on set for other actors to react to.

Deborah talked about how everyone is on different trajectories, broken in different ways, and has their own hero’s journey to walk. And we begin to see everything play out in the trailer. There are guns, there are swords, and yes, there are even light sabres, reflecting the film’s original plan as a Star Wars movie, but these are more like hot knives, cutting through flesh, even those of Nemesis, played by Doona Bae, the one who wields them. Because yes, we got to see the R-Rated version of the trailer. Rebel Moon, however, is planned for a more general audience. For now. But there will be a harder R-Rated cut to come, and we saw those scenes reflected in the trailer shown to us. Several alternative scenes were filmed for a future cut, and Deborah talked about how it made sense to plan this from the outset rather than have to return to a movie for a new cut later on… yes, we’re talking Justice League here.

So we see a galaxy at war, in the skies and down below, across the desert with hieroglyphics, into the forest and through the snow, through bamboo villages and palaces, we see Vietnam and Cambodia, trench World War I warfare, Iraq and Afghanistan, recreated on new planets with new weapons, warriors, species, lives. We see the uniform, flag, and troops of the fascist, with Ed Skrein as Atticus Noble, those trying to survive, and the will of those choosing to fight back.

How Rebel Moon Came From Heavy Metal

Zack Snyder talked about how he was inspired more than anything by Heavy Metal Magazine, the adult sci-fi/fantasy comic book anthology rich in intergalactic worlds, planets, and people. The Rebel Moon logo is meant to reflect that of Heavy Metal, and it’s the kind of world he wants to portray; even for this cut, he has to tone it down a little.

Zack told us to listen for the singing voice of Djimon Hounsou as General Titus; it is that which appears in the trailer. Zack and Djimon met when Djimon was 21 at the ArtCenter College Of Design in Pasadena, California, and was asked to shoot this “amazing young model from France.” He did so, and others at the ArtCenter used him in their projects, and now he’s in Rebel Moon. Zack talked about how he found the picture he took in 1989 just the other day and may well release it – pointing out that Djimon still looks just the same as he did. Three-and-a-half decades ago.

The “Exotic Palette” of Rebel Moon

Deborah Snyder also talked about how creating a whole universe populated with so many people, they were able to give the film a global look without feeling forced, something Zack called an “exotic palette” before telling us how much he hates ensemble casts, to much audience laughter, given the nature of his films. He clarified he likes the ensembles themselves, but it is hard to film, physically and mentally, with five leads; it takes a lot of work, but the results are super satisfying. Rebel Moon more so, as Deborah reminded us, that it was filmed under 115 Fahrenheit or 46 Centigrade heat outside, with N95 masks at the time, with breaks needed for actors, and a challenge for actors to get back to the mental state they needed to be.

From what we’ve seen, it seems to have worked. The trailer shows us griffins, multi-armed minotaurs, and squid warriors. Kings are being crowned, generals leading from the front, and many, many are falling. This is a universe in all of its complexity. And a story of those trying to survive and take a stand. Now I love some world-building. I’m a sucker for everything from Valerian to Mortal Engines, Fifth Element to Jupiter Rising, and Star Wars to Dune, so I know my opinion is suspect to some. But Rebel Moon absolutely stands among them as a massive, glorious cacophony of realities, the Tower Of Babel spread out across a landscape of Heavy Metal. I will be counting the days till I get to see some more.

Rebel Moon: A Child Of Fire is released on the 22nd of December, and then Rebel Moon: The Scar Giver on the 19th of April 2024.

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