Zack Snyder

Zachary Edward "Zack" Snyder (born March 1, 1966) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. After making his feature film debut with the 2004 remake Dawn of the Dead, he gained wide recognition with the 2007 box office hit 300, adapted from writer-artist Frank Miller's Dark Horse Comics miniseries of the same name, and later went on to direct the 2009 superhero film Watchmen, an adaptation of the comic book of the same name. He is the co-founder of Cruel and Unusual Films, a production company he established in 2004, alongside his wife Deborah Snyder and producing partner Wesley Coller. His first family film was the 2010 animated family adventure film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, based on the first three books of the series by Kathryn Lasky. His most recent film is Sucker Punch, which he directed and co-wrote. He has also been hired by Warner Bros. to direct a reboot of the Superman film series currently titled Man of Steel.

Personal life

Snyder was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. His father was an executive recruiter and his mother was a painter and a photography teacher at Daycroft School, which Snyder later attended. Zack attended Camp Owatonna in Harrison, Maine during the summer months as a child. Snyder's mother inspired him to study nude paintings[citation needed] a year after high school at Heatherley School of Fine Art in England, although he had already begun filmmaking. Afterward, Snyder attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California (where his classmates included Michael Bay and Tarsem Singh). Snyder still lives in Pasadena with his second wife, producer Deborah Snyder, and has seven children.

Career

Snyder went on to shoot, as a director and as a cinematographer, television commercials for such clients as the automobile companies Audi, BMW, Subaru and Nissan, among others. Other commercial work has been for clients including Nike, Reebok, and Gatorade.

Snyder made his feature film debut with the remake Dawn of the Dead (2004), and scored a box office hit with 300 (2007), adapted from writer-artist Frank Miller's Dark Horse Comics miniseries of the same name. His Warner Bros. film Watchmen was released on March 6, 2009. His follow-up project/animation debut titled Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole was released on September 24, 2010. Snyder produced, co-wrote, and directed Sucker Punch, which was released on March 25, 2011. The film, based on a script written by Snyder and Steve Shibuya, was about a young woman in a mental hospital who fantasizes of escape with her fellow inmates.

He has announced that he will be directing the upcoming Superman: The Man of Steel film for Warner Bros., which will be a reboot of the franchise, and plans to write and direct a sequel to Legend of the Guardians.

300 controversy

Before the release of 300, Warner Bros. expressed concerns about the political aspects of the film's theme. Snyder relates that there was "a huge sensitivity about East versus West with the studio."[4] Media speculation about a possible parallel between the Greco-Persian conflict and current events began in an interview with Snyder that was conducted before the Berlin Film Festival. The interviewer remarked that "everyone is sure to be translating this [film] into contemporary politics." Snyder replied that, while he was aware that people would read the film through the lens of contemporary events, no parallels between the film and the contemporary world were intended.

Style

Snyder often uses slow motion in fight scenes in his films, which Amy Nicholson of Boxoffice magazine remarked separates the director from other filmmakers who make multiple cuts and close-ups during a fight. A minute-long shot from 300 shows King Leonidas walking down as he slaughters his enemies, and the camera only dollys in and out to emphasize each kill.