Director Zack Snyder's zombie action/horror movie Army of the Dead is officially rated R.According to Exhibitor Relations Co., Army of the Dead received its R-rating for "strong bloody violence, gore and language throughout, some sexual content and brief nudity/graphic nudity." In addition to its rating, the film recently unveiled an official poster and release date, ahead of its teaser trailer premiering on Thursday.
Directed by Snyder from a script he co-wrote with Joby Harold (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword) and Shay Hatten (John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum), Army of the Dead follows a group of mercenaries who try to break into a Las Vegas casino after the city has been overrun by zombies and quarantined from the rest of the world by a giant wall. Dave Bautista stars as the group's leader, Scott Ward, with Ella Purnell playing his daughter Kate.
Army of the Dead marks something of a homecoming for Snyder, who made his feature directing debut on 2004's R-rated Dawn of the Dead remake. The filmmaker followed that project with the R-rated comic book adaptations 300 and Watchmen, released in 2006 and 2009, respectively. While the theatrical versions of Snyder's films since then have all been PG-13 or lower, his "Ultimate Edition" of 2016's Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was also rated R and his upcoming Justice League cut received the same rating for "violence and some language."
Snyder developed an earlier iteration of Army of the Dead in the late 2000s , with the intention of having Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. (2011's The Thing) direct. Warner Bros. passed on that version of the project, which was described as being extremely grotesque and included disturbing elements like human women being raped by male zombies and giving birth to human/zombie hybrid offspring. Years later, Snyder reworked Army of the Dead for Netflix, removing that plot point entirely.
Although Snyder has described Netflix's Army of the Dead as "pure zombie mayhem," he's stressed that the film's human characters will be just as engaging as the undead. "It's going to surprise people that there's a lot of warmth and real emotion with these great characters," he explained.
Directed by Zack Snyder, Army of the Dead stars Dave Bautista, Garret Dillahunt, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Raul Castillo, Tig Notaro, Theo Rossi and Ana de la Reguera. The film will release on Netflix May 21.
Source: Twitter