It would be stating the obvious to say that Zack Snyder loves himself some CGI, whether it’s manipulating almost every frame of his breakthrough feature 300 or shooting additional footage for his HBO Max cut of Justice League in his driveway using nothing more than a green screen. However, Netflix sci-fi epic Rebel Moon is going old school, and in the best way possible.
Previous images we’ve seen from the two-part spectacular indicated that the costuming and prosthetics team had their work cut out for them, and now a new set video has revealed a monstrous spaceship as production continues in Los Angeles. As you can see below, everything surrounding the craft is going to be heavily touched up in post-production, but it’s refreshing to see such a sizeable unit being built for real in a day and age where digital effects have become ubiquitous.
Rebel Moon was an interesting enough project to begin with, given that it began life as a Star Wars spinoff before being refitted into an original story once Netflix opted to give it the go-ahead as part of their exclusive deal with the filmmaker and his Stone Quarry outfit, with the tale remaining inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s classic Seven Samurai.
The cast features an eclectic mix of new faces, rising stars, grizzled veterans, and Snyder regulars like Ray Fisher and Jena Malone, but honesty we were pretty much sold when it was announced that two-time Academy Award-winning knight of the realm Anthony Hopkins had been tasked to voice a sentient robot designed for nothing but war.