Advertisement

Zack Snyder Says Netflix Space Opera ‘Rebel Moon’ Will Be A Two-Parter; Each Chapter To Get Multiple Cuts

Matt Grobar
·3 min read

Filmmaker Zack Snyder has affirmed online speculation surrounding his forthcoming Netflix space opera Rebel Moon, confirming that it will be split into two films, with multiple cuts to be released of each installment.

Snyder’s comments came as part of an interview with Vanity Fair, also featuring his producing partner and wife, Deborah Snyder. In it, Deborah explains that the decision to expand Rebel Moon into a two-parter emerged from a dialogue with higher-ups at Netflix, including Film chairman Scott Stuber. “Originally, the script was one movie, but it was in ‘Zack form,'” she says. “It was 172 pages.”

More from Deadline

In coming to understand that the film would come in at around a three-hour runtime, she explains, “Stuber was like, ‘On the service, under-two-hour movies really do better for some reason,’ even though you’ll binge-watch a series of eight episodes.

“Zack said, ‘If you ask me to make this less than two hours, I’m going to lose all the character. You won’t care about these people. It’s a character story about how people can change, and redemption, and what are you willing to fight for…'” continued Deborah Snyder. “So [Stuber] said, ‘What if I give you two movies?'”

While the first chapter of Rebel Moon will arrive on Netflix on December 22, a release date for the second hasn’t been set. Still, said Zack Snyder, “It won’t be long after. Netflix can do things that a traditional studio can’t do as far as how close together the movies are released.”

As to the multiple cuts of the Rebel Moon films, he explained that the first will be one “that anyone can enjoy and watch,” with the second for each installment to be more adult-oriented. “I think for fans of mine and people who are ready to take a deeper, harder dive, that’ll be fun for them,” he said.

A sci-fi adventure film that Snyder has been mulling since college, Rebel Moon is set in a peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy that finds itself threatened by the armies of the tyrannical Regent Balisarius, then dispatching a young woman (Sofia Boutella) with a mysterious past to seek out warriors from neighboring planets to help them make a stand.

Pic’s the first to fall under Netflix’s first-look partnership with the Snyders and Wesley Coller’s The Stone Quarry Productions. Also starring are Charlie Hunnam, Djimon Hounsou, Anthony Hopkins, Doona Bae, Ray Fisher, Stuart Martin, Cary Elwes, Corey Stoll, Michiel Huisman, Alfonso Herrera, Ed Skrein, Cleopatra Coleman, Fra Fee, Rhian Rees, Jena Malone, E. Duffy, Charlotte Maggi, Sky Yang and Staz Nair.

Snyder wrote the script, based on his and Kurt Johnstad’s story, with Shay Hatten and Johnstad. Producers include the Snyders and Coller for The Stone Quarry, as well as Eric Newman for Grand Electric. Bergen Swanson is exec producing alongside Hatten, Johnstad, and Sarah Bowen for Grand Electric.

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.