Zack Snyder Talks About His "Big Ask" STAR WARS Pitch to Lucasfilm Which Became REBEL MOON
As you know, Zack Snyder’s upcoming space opera Rebel Moon is based on an initial Star Wars pitch he made to Lucasfilm. During an interview with Empire, the filmmaker talked about that initial pitch saying it was a “big ask” because he pitched it to them as an R-rated Star Wars movie.
Snyder explained: “It was Seven Samurai in space, and a Star Wars movie was my original concept for it.” He added, “I knew that the origins for George were a lot of those Kurosawa films,” and that served as his inspiration.
Snyder made his pitch shortly after the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney, and he explained, “There was that window where, you know, who knows what’s possible? I was like, ‘I don’t want any of your characters. I don’t want to do anything with any known characters, I just want to do my own thing on the side.’ And originally I was like, ‘It should be rated R!’ That was almost a non-starter.”
At the time, Lucasfilm was hell-bent on just expanding on stories that have already been told in the Star Wars universe. They wanted to use familiar characters to appease the fans. They are now just starting to think about doing something that doesn’t connect to any of the past stories.
Rian Johnson was looking to do something like that, and now James Mangold and Taika Waiiti are going to tell stories that are set in different corners of the Star Wars universe with all-new characters. Snyder was kind of ahead of his time making that kind of pitch, it was the right move for Lucasfilm, but at the time they just wanted to play it safe an not take any risks.
Snyder went on to say: “I knew it was a big ask, to be honest. But the deeper I got into it, I realized it was probably never going to be what I wanted.”
So, he ended up reworking his concept into an original film that is going to be heavily influenced by Star Wars. He’s also going to build his own franchise with multiple films and each one of them will have family-friendly cuts along with rated R versions. Thanks to Netflix, he’s getting to tell the story that he dreamed up in the way that he wanted to tell it. I’m looking forward to it!
The story is set in a “peaceful colony on the edge of the galaxy that finds itself threatened by the armies of the tyrannical Regent Balisarius. They dispatch a young woman with a mysterious past to seek out warriors from neighboring planets to help them take a stand against the Tyrant.”
Snyder previously talked about the project, saying: “This is me growing up as an Akira Kurosawa fan, a Star Wars fan. It's my love of sci-fi and a giant adventure. My hope is that this also becomes a massive IP and a universe that can be built out."
Rebel Moon star Cleopatra Coleman (Dopesick, Infinity Pool) also talked about the film, and while she couldn’t say much, she did say that the upcoming sci-fi movie was beautiful and epic.
The movie also stars Sofia Boutella, Charlie Hunnam, Doona Bae, Djimon Hounsou, Ray Fisher, Jena Malone, Ed Skrein, Stuart Martin, Cary Elwes, Corey Stoll, Michiel Huisman, Anthony Hopkins, and Alfonso Herrera.
Rebel Moon Part 1 is set to arrive on Netflix on December 22.