Zack Snyder has finally returned to the project that’s haunted him since 2011. The filmmaker behind all things slow-motion and sepia-tinted is now deep into The Last Photograph, a Colombia-set kidnapping thriller that just started shooting a few weeks ago, and from the looks of it, this might be Snyder’s most personal film yet.
Production for The Last Photograph kicked off in September and will run through November, with filming in Colombia, Iceland, and Los Angeles. Snyder is producing alongside Deborah Snyder, Wesley Coller, and Gianni Nunnari, while his long-time collaborator Kurt Johnstad penned the screenplay. Stuart Martin and Fra Fee are leading the cast, and the legendary Hans Zimmer is composing the score.
Martin plays a former DEA operative whose niece and nephew are kidnapped in the South American mountains after their diplomat parents are murdered. He teams up with a washed-up war photographer, the only witness to the crime, and what starts as a rescue mission turns into something far stranger.
Snyder calls it “a meditation on life and death,” inspired by his own experiences. Speaking to Deadline, he said, “The idea of taking camera in hand and simply making a movie in an intimate way is very appealing to me. The Last Photograph is a meditation of life and death, embodying some of the trials that I have experienced in my own life and the exploration of those ideas through image making.”
For anyone who’s followed Snyder’s career, this shift might sound shocking. The man’s spent the last ten years blowing up planets, zombies, and superhero universes, usually in glorious slow motion. But after Rebel Moon tanked with critics (22% on Rotten Tomatoes for Part One, and an even more painful 16% for Part Two), and the mobile game spinoff barely registered on Netflix’s charts, it’s clear he’s ready to strip things down.
In a Reel Blend interview earlier this year, Snyder admitted, “I’m trying to do a small movie right now… can I just do a movie without any visual effects in it for like five minutes? Then, I’ll go back to the insanity.”
The Last Photograph might just be that film. This is his first “small” project since his 2004 debut, Dawn of the Dead. Of course, a DEA agent, kidnappings, and murder don’t exactly scream minimalist, but compared to space princesses wielding laser swords, it’s practically indie.
Snyder’s also been sharing behind-the-scenes photos on social media, and they’re gorgeous. The first was captioned “Scouting in 🇨🇴 leica monochrome,” another read “North of Bogotá, Leica monochrome,” followed by a shirtless Stuart Martin (who looks a bit like Henry Cavill here) waist-deep in a river in Iceland, and an artsy out-of-focus gunshot labeled: “The lens is a custom modified Arri DNA 65mm with better close focus.” There are about 25 images in total, all stripped-down, raw, and strangely intimate.
No superheroes. No CGI. Just Snyder, his camera, and a story that might actually hit where it hurts. For a filmmaker known for spectacle, The Last Photograph could be the quiet comeback he’s been needing.
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