'Rebel Moon': Two Parts, Director’s Cut, And New Looks
Sofia Boutella as Kora in Rebel Moon. Courtesy of Netflix.
For Zack Snyder, no (set of) project(s) has brought more publicity and worldwide attention than his cut of Justice League, lovingly dubbed as The Snyder Cut. Though Snyder had seemed to achieve the pinnacle of his success during his time at DC, he wanted more. He wanted Star Wars. Unfortunately, he couldn’t have Star Wars, so he got the next best thing.
Rebel Moon, the first entry into Snyder’s own cinematic universe for Netflix, is the first in a two-part story that follows Kora (Sofia Boutella), a woman hiding on the moon of Veldt as a wheat farmer, hoping to escape from the oppressive government that wants to conquer everything they can — feels familiar, right? For Kora, this conflict is personal, as she’s only found herself on this moon because she fled said government. Unfortunately, they come to her because, as producer Deborah Snyder puts it, “[The government] want[s] to take the women and take the children, and they need more soldiers…”
The cast of Rebel Moon. Courtesy of Netflix.
Rebel Moon is likely to feel extra familiar to those who, in the last few years (and this November), have found themselves watching Dune, a film that features large empires (with a mother world controlling them) beating down on the little guy, with the little guy having to rise up and fight back. For Rebel Moon, this fighting back comes with the small rebellion that Kora — who spends most of the movie establishing her team — hopes to lead.
The film, which arrives on Netflix on December 22, takes the Dune approach of using two parts to tell its sole story, separating a 172 screenplay written by Snyder into two films, both aiming to be under two hours due to the request of Netflix film chairman Scott Stuber. When Deborah Snyder was asked what the film is, she said, “It has a bit of Star Wars. It has a bit of everything,” she says. “It’s a little bit like Lord of the Rings, a little bit Game of Thrones with the palace intrigue. And it’s really just a lot of what’s in Zack’s head.”
Though Snyder will have to cut things down to hit the under 120 minute mark for the streaming service, he’ll be releasing director’s cuts of both parts of Rebel Moon, collectively accumulating to four different movies to kick off his sci-fi word, which already has a spin-off series in the works.
The quotes in this article were taken from an exclusive interview done with Vanity Fair.
