It's true that Zach Snyder is that rarest of things, a dishy director, but that's not the only reason that Hollywood considers him so hot right now. With the buzz on 300 growing Stateside and the film due to premiere there tonight, Snyder is already deep in pre-production on the holy grail of comic book movies, Watchmen. And today he has announced plans for another project under his new Cruel and Unusual Films productiond deal with Warners.
His next-but-one (we hope; if Watchmen gets put on the back burner by a studio again we're officially storming Hollywood) will be called Sucker Punch, and Snyder is writing and producing with plans to direct. But don't fear that title - this isn't another **Rocky **wannabe. The story, set in the 1950s, is about an evil stepfather who confines a girl to a mental institution and plans to have her lobotomised in five days. Once there, she imagines an alternate reality to escape her rather dreadful circumstances, and - in that alternative world - goes about collecting five objects to help her escape (although in that world too she's being chased by a vile rapist).
Snyder told The Hollywood Reporter, "A while ago I had written a script for myself, and there was a sequence in it that made me think, 'How can I make a film that can have action sequences in it that aren't limited by physical reality, but still have the story make sense so it's not, and I don't mean to be mean, like a bullshit thing like Ultraviolet or something like that?' " Snyder said. "And also, I was really inspired by the worlds of movies like 'Moulin Rouge,' which is modern but at the same time timeless."
The film will be, we're told, "visually arresting", which comes as no surprise to anyone who's heard anything about 300. Zach also described it as "Alice in Wonderland with machine guns" and said that it will contain elements such as "dragons, B-52 bombers and brothels". Which, frankly, makes it sound like not just the best film ever, but the best thing ever. Where do we sign up?