- I had this idea for this zombie heist film
set in Vegas where like these guys have to go in
and get this money out of a safe that's under the Strip
and battle these zombies to get it
and everyone was like, "well, that sounds like a great movie."
"Let's make that movie."
How you doin', I'm Zack Snyder, I am the director
of "Army of the Dead".
(driving rock music)
My favorite scene to shoot, shooting that rooftop sequence
with Nora, where she has the Zombie Queen's head.
- What the hell is that? - The head of his Queen.
- We had Athena's real head, she was on a dolly
being boomed up.
In the wide shots we had an animatronic head
that a guy on a remote control was making bite.
- I killed all the zombies with Dave Bautista,
that was a lot of fun.
- I did Kali for years, which is a Filipino martial art,
it's knife fighting.
(zombie groaning)
And I finally got to do some of it on film.
- Oh, come on man, I've got a chainsaw.
Are you cool with that?
I said, "So cool."
(chainsaw buzzing)
- This one is a no-brainer for me,
it was the massive fight scene that I had.
(groaning and gunshots)
- Love Samantha, she's so fantastic in this film.
- Samantha is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet
who can kick your ass.
(gunshots blasting)
- The scope of that, there were so many zombies.
- It really was one of my favorite days on set ever.
(screaming) (machine gun blaring)
- I loved the zombie tiger, of course.
- That's crossing a line.
(laughing)
- And I'm not sure I knew how to handle it.
- The scene with the zombie jumping in the helicopter.
- We were literally moving in the air.
- Hold on!
- Are you kidding me? This scene is so incredible.
- I look at the movie and I'm like, "how did he get this shot?"
I was there! - Like, the whole movie
is like a favorite scene.
- You've got like 50 super freaky athletic guys
that look like zombies just running at you,
it's terrifying!
- Yeah I was a little scared to be honest.
- I mean, when you've got them there and they've got,
you know, the prosthetics and they've got the hair,
contacts, I mean, it's amazing!
- Like, real actors playing zombies, playing them
in such a believable way
and the work that they did with hair, with makeup,
and wardrobe and, it was so believable.
- It's not just extras but they're all covered
in zombie makeup. - It's an intimidating sight,
it's an intimidating thing. - It's very unsettling.
- You feel like you're in it. - Magic of movies.
- I'm just trying not to, you know, shit myself.
- What I loved about working with him,
A, he was shooting it himself. - Zack wore the hat of
not only directing but director of photography.
- Zack is the director, he's the cinematographer,
he's the cameraman. - You see a director
carrying around a camera, you know he's just
fully invested in it.
- Holding the camera! - "Oh, that, oh, come here!"
- Telling everybody what to do!
- He blew my mind. - He's wearing so many hats.
- You know, he films things himself, he encourages improv,
he's super relaxed and super collaborative.
- Yeah, 100%. - He's very easy to work with.
I think he was the easiest person to work with!
- His voltage is much higher. - And he was just like
a kid in a candy store. - Zack is just that guy
that you give yourself over to in every way
and you go, whatever you need, whatever you need.
We must have improved every scene.
- The atmosphere on set was quite freeing,
it wasn't like, "oh, you've only gotta do it this way."
- Zack isn't really so Velcro'd to the script
in that way and that's a great thing.
- I don't think I can recall a single time
when an actor had an idea or a thought
and he wasn't willing to explore it with them on camera.
- I find that it makes everybody's
kind of creative synapses fire.
- It was a great ensemble and I think he let us find our own
kind of chemistry. - There were a lot of little
improv moments and Zack gives you a lot of freedom.
Matthias and I, when we were pulling out the big diagram
of the vault - - And I said to Dave
"Watch your fingers, Mr. Big Hand."
- He started in with the Mr. Big Hands
and Mr. Sausage Fingers and he was just a very,
very dismissive of me. - Zack was like,
"What was that?" - They're making the dialogue
their own, within the context of the scene,
I think it's a really, it's healthy.
- And I knew when he was happy with things
because he would just look at me
and he would shake his head, like,
and I knew, like that's it!
- I will say that this experience of shooting
was probably my favorite experience
of any film I've made. - What made it was just
the process and the experience.
I'll never forget the process. My whole life has been that.
- I've grown the most throughout my career,
I've by far grown the most on Zack's sets.
- I really can't express enough the great time that I had
and how at ease Zack is and puts people at ease.
- This was one of the best experiences of my life.
- All right guys, thank you so much for spending some time
with "Army of the Dead", appreciate it.
- Peace, my man. - Bye everyone!