Zack Snyder Says He Pitched ‘Rebel Moon’ To Kathleen Kennedy Prior to Disney Acquisition
As you might have heard by now, the story of Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon was once pitched to Lucasfilm as a Star Wars movie. During the promotional campaign for the film, he discussed the topic briefly but didn’t go into a lot of detail. Speaking on the DGA Director’s Cut podcast (via The Playlist), Zack Snyder finally opened up about it when talking to Louis Leterrier (who also has experience pitching to Lucasfilm).
Apparently, Snyder pitched the idea even before Disney bought the company, which he had no idea would happen:
“At the time I pitched it and [Kathleen Kennedy said], ‘That sounds really cool,’ I remember saying something like, ‘Is there any way it could be rated R? Is that a thing?’ And she went, ‘Hmmmm, I’m not sure…’ ‘So you’re saying there’s a chance,’ and she said, ‘Well, let’s talk more and see how it evolves,’ and I was like, ‘OK!’
“I did have a second meeting where ILM had done all these paintings, reflecting what my idea would look like in the Star Wars universe, and then I was [thinking], ‘See! This is cool!’
And then two days later, I read in the trades that they sold [Lucasfilm], and Disney now owns it, and I was like, ‘Uh what? That’s weird; no one said anything about that; a head’s up would have been cool of some small amount. And then, of course, they were like, ‘Look, we love your idea, but we’re gonna go in a new… we’re going to do something else.'”
It was widely reported back in 2013 that Kennedy and Snyder had met to talk about a Star Wars movie, but nothing came of it. Snyder’s reps denied any “current” involvement and insisted he was busy finishing up Man of Steel at the time. Even Snyder’s wife and producing partner, Deborah Snyder, told him it was all for the best:
“My wife was like, ‘See, this is the best thing that has ever happened to you. This is great news, you’re fine, plus when were you going to do that movie? Because you have like… you’re busy,’ So it just fell back a little bit, it disappeared for a while, I would still think about it, I would still talk to her about it, I would say, ‘What if.. this!” And [my wife] would say, ‘You’re still ranting about that space movie?’ But it was tenacious.”
In the end, it probably worked out for him, as he got to make the film he wanted and for a different studio. Still, Snyder thought he could save Star Wars after, in his own words, it had lost itself during the prequels:
“We were working on the editorial of ‘Man of Steel,’ I said to Christoper Nolan, remember telling Chris in the edit, ‘I had this idea, I’m just gonna call Kathleen Kennedy, and I’m just gonna pitch her this ‘Star Wars’ movie I have an idea for,’ because at that time, that was before the Disney sale, it was after the prequels, ‘Star Wars’ was quiet, ‘Star Wars’ was in a quiet mode.
“And I remember thinking, ‘They need me!’” he laughed, self-deprecatingly. “This is cool, I’m gonna fix ‘Star Wars!’ Also, because I had some issues with some of the [prequel] decisions—I’m not gonna say what it was, but I just felt like [Lucasfilm] had gone astray a little bit; I know that’s sacrilegious to say, but that was my feeling.”
The second part of Rebel Moon is due out on Netflix in April.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
