WASK’s Thomas Gastaldi has his annual intel-filled Cannes spitball, and he’s hearing a rumor so wild that, even though I had heard about it from someone just a few days ago, I refused to believe it.
None other than auteur Zack Snyder will premiere his latest film, “The Last Photograph,” at Cannes. Gastaldi not only hints at it—he confirms it. If it’s confirmed tomorrow morning, this would actually be the second time Snyder goes to Cannes — “Dawn of the Dead” screened out of competition in 2004.
This project is the total opposite of Snyder’s usual maximalist brand of filmmaking. Hell, there’s not even a distributor attached to it yet. The guy shot back-to-back “Rebel Moon” movies and then decided to go out into the South American jungles to find his inner artist.
Snyder started production on “The Last Photograph” last October. He’s been trying to make this film since 2011. It was shot in Colombia, with “Rebel Moon” actors Stuart Martin and Fra Fee cast in the lead roles. (Back in 2016, the film was set to star Christian Bale and Sean Penn.)
“The idea of taking a camera in hand and simply making a movie in an intimate way is very appealing to me,” Snyder said in a statement. “‘The Last Photograph’ is a meditation on life and death, embodying some of the trials I’ve experienced in my own life and exploring those ideas through image-making.”
The film, which has a screenplay penned by Kurt Johnstad (“300”), follows an ex-DEA operative who ventures into the South American mountains to rescue his kidnapped niece and nephew. Joined by a washed-up war photographer, he confronts his past as their journey into the wilderness blurs the line between reality and the surreal.
One look at Snyder’s filmography shows a career built on epic, effects-heavy movies, so it will be interesting to see him deliver something “smaller” for the first time since his 2004 debut Dawn of the Dead. A Cannes premiere would certainly give this film some pedigree—at least until the reviews drop, which might be positive? Who knows.