Army of the Dead lead and Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista has offered some interesting insight into what drew him to the Netflix project, alongside a new image from director Zack Snyder’s upcoming zombie flick. The image depicts an intense looking Bautista, with the actor revealing that it is his love of the undead that ultimately persuaded him to sign on for Army of the Dead, having tried for years to be a part of AMC’s The Walking Dead.
A new still from Zack Snyder’s ‘ARMY OF THE DEAD’ has been released.
(Source: @empiremagazine) pic.twitter.com/L29TwirpcR
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“I’m a zombie fan. I tried to get on Walking Dead for years. I said I would come and play a zombie for free, but they said, ‘You’re too big!'” And with Snyder’s genre mash-up – promising scares, action, and heist-thriller twists and turns – he found something that stood out in the long-established genre. “For me, there had to be something special about a zombie film for me to sign up. What sets us apart is the heist. But there’s a whole bunch of different layers to this film.”
Based on his sheer size, Dave Bautista would have no doubt made one of the scariest zombies in the history of The Walking Dead, and it’s a shame that this was never realized on screen, especially considering his eagerness to appear. Still, at least the actor is finally getting his wish and joining the zombie apocalypse genre, having previously referred to the “layers” in Army of the Dead of which he is so keen. “I said I wasn’t interested. I had this chip on my shoulder and was looking for juicy [dramatic roles],” Bautista said last month while explaining why he turned down a role in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad for the lead in Army of the Dead. “Then I read the script and it was a lot deeper and had more layers than I thought. And also, to be quite frank, I wanted to work with Zack.”
Army of the Dead follows a group of mercenaries who carry out a heist on a Las Vegas casino during a zombie outbreak. “It is a full-blown, balls-to-the-wall zombie heist movie, so it’s genre-on-genre in a great way,” says Snyder of the upcoming Netflix project. “So you expect pure zombie mayhem, and you get that, 100 percent. But also you get these really amazing characters on a fantastic journey. It’s going to surprise people that there’s a lot of warmth and real emotion with these great characters.”
Directed by Zack Snyder from a script he wrote with Shay Hatten and Joby Harold, Army of the Dead stars an ensemble cast led by Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy). Alongside the action star, Army of the Dead’s cast includes the likes of Ella Purnell (Kick-Ass 2), Omari Hardwick (Kick-Ass), Theo Rossi (Luke Cage), Ana De La Reguera (Narcos), Huma Qureshi (Gangs of Wasseypur), Hiroyuki Sanada (Avengers: Endgame), Garret Dillahunt (Fear the Walking Dead), Ra&úl Castillo (Looking), Nora Arnezeder (Mozart in the Jungle), Matthias Schweigh&öfer (The Most Beautiful Day), Samantha Win (Wonder Woman) and Rich Cetrone (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice).
Army of the Dead is due for release later this year, with a recent rumor claiming that it could be hitting Netflix in May. This comes to us from Empire.