Guardians of the Galaxy 3 might be on hold, but Dave Bautista is keeping busy with other roles. He has been cast in the upcoming Dune remake and rumored to be in Gunn’s Suicide Squad 2 reboot. Now the latest rumor is that he will have a role in Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead.
The rumor comes from a possible hint by the man himself. In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, when asked about upcoming projects he mentioned that he has “a Zack Snyder project on the horizon.” The speculation is that the Snyder project is the Netflix film Army of the Dead, as no other Snyder projects have been announced. Later in the interview, Bautista joked about having a “zombie killer” in his kitchen: an armored glove with serrated blades attached like Wolverine’s claws.
Army of the Dead will be set amid a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, during which a man assembles a group of mercenaries to venture into the quarantined zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted. Snyder is producing and directing from a story he wrote. He said this about the project: “There are no handcuffs on me at all with this one. I thought this was a good palate cleanser to really dig in with both hands and make something fun and epic and crazy and bonkers in the best possible way. I love to honor canon and the works of art, but this is the opportunity to find a purely joyful way to express myself through a genre. It will be the most kick-ass, self-aware – but not in a wink-to-the-camera way – balls-to-the-wall zombie freakshow that anyone has ever seen. No one’s ever let me completely loose [like this].”
Snyder is no stranger to zombie films as his first movie was a remake of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (2004). Although he stirred up some controversy over his use of fast-moving zombies in that film. He since went on to direct 300, Watchmen, and the DCEU films Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. He had been working on Justice League when Joss Whedon had to take over after the tragic death of Snyder’s daughter.
Army of the Dead will begin filming July 15 in New Mexico.
It will be interesting to see Snyder return to his zombie roots, now with a $90 million budget. And Bautista is certainly one man fully capable of kicking undead butt.
