LOS ANGELES: After his film debut remaking of “Dawn of the Dead” in 2004, director Zack Snyder is returning to the world of zombies with Netflix’s “Army of the Dead” and he’s putting a new spin on the genre by combining it with a heist movie.
After a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries takes the ultimate gamble by venturing into the quarantine zone for the greatest heist ever in this flick starring former wrestler Dave Bautista and Indian actress Huma Qureshi.
“I had one of the best times making this movie than I’ve ever had making a film,” Snyder told Arab News. “It was just such an immersive experience and such a great intimate experience with me operating the camera and having the actors just right there with me.”
The film, which is streaming now, sees a former mercenary hired to rob a casino that’s been quarantined after zombies overran the Vegas strip. Wrestler turned “Guardians of the Galaxy” star Bautista delivers gory action fun, as well as sentimental moments through a subplot dealing with his character’s estranged daughter.
“What’s really challenging is when I’m involved in scenes that have a varying range of emotions where I have to change emotions very fast,” Bautista said of his performance as Scott Ward. “There’s one scene in particular in this film where I go through like 10 different emotions within the span of maybe a minute.”
Snyder highlighted the film’s opening as a scene that was particularly tricky to shoot. Not content to use practical or digital effects to get the proper lighting for the scene which took place at dusk, Snyder decided to actually film at dusk, which ended up being anything but simple.
“We’d wait for the sun to go down and then shoot for the 30 minutes before it’s dark and you know use that time to shoot the movie,” he explained. “Of course, that sequence you can’t do in one day so we ended up shooting it in over five weeks of dusks.”
The painstaking process of filming was worth it, however, as fans can expect a popcorn-worthy zombie-filled romp with just the right amount of action, laughs and emotional notes to make staying at home worth it.
