Zack Snyder is going from the epic world of DC superheroes to war-torn Afghanistan.
After
wrapping Justice League, Snyder is not tackling
Justice League 2, as was the initial plan, but rather is focusing his attention on his long-in-development thriller
The Last Photograph.
Snyder is still intent on directing Justice League 2, but that movie has been pushed back to make room for Ben Affleck’s Batman stand-alone movie. The move left an opening in Snyder’s schedule for a production that is smaller-scale, at least compared to massive superhero tentpoles he has been working on of late. Call it a palate cleanser, if you will.
Snyder set up the project in the mid-2000s, after the success of
300, but the rights lapsed. Gianni Nunnari’s Hollywood Gang is in the process of negotiating a new deal.
Snyder concocted the story and his longtime colleague Kurt Johnstad wrote the script, which will get a sprucing up. In 2011, Christian Bale and Sean Penn were attached to star, but the project is now actorless. The plan, sources say, is to repackage the project and approach Warner Bros., where Snyder and his producing partner and wife Deborah Snyder have a first-look pact for their Cruel and Unusual Films banner, with the aim of having it shoot in late 2017.
Photograph centers on a war correspondent in Afghanistan who is the only one to survive an attack on a group of Americans. When a special ops soldier in search of a family member shows up, the two team up, with the correspondent hoping to score the story of his life.