{"id":586026,"date":"2026-08-31T16:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T16:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586026\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T16:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T16:14:13","slug":"zack-snyder-officially-returns-with-new-jungle-thriller-trailer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586026\/","title":{"rendered":"Zack Snyder Officially Returns With New Jungle Thriller Trailer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zack Snyder<\/a> has spent the last decade and change living primarily in the large-scale realm of franchise sci-fi and superheroes, from the first DCEU film Man of Steel<\/a> in 2013 to the second half of his two-part space opera Rebel Moon<\/a> in 2024. Yet, that time is at an end. With James Gunn now at the helm of DC’s cinematic universe and the future of his Star Wars rival looking bleak at Netflix<\/a>, he’s preparing to enter a new phase in his cinematic career. Most recently, reports circulated that he’d be resurrecting a John Carpenter classic with a remake of Escape From New York<\/a>, and he has the UFC movie Brawler in the works, but before either of those, one of his most grounded and intimate passion projects is finally coming to life.<\/p>\n

With time in between Rebel Moon \u2014 Part Two: The Scargiver and his next film, Snyder finally got the chance to shoot The Last Photograph last year. The idea had been on the back burner for the filmmaker since the mid-2000s, at one point boasting a cast that would’ve been led by two Oscar winners in Christian Bale<\/a> and Sean Penn<\/a>, but for one reason or another, it never came to be until now. Stuart Martin now plays the starring role of a former DEA operative scouring the remote South American mountains in search of his missing niece and nephew after their diplomat parents are viciously murdered. His only lead is a burnout war photographer he encounters along the way, who is the only person in the area to have witnessed the killers. Thus begins a race against time through the jungle, where their reality blurs among the trees<\/a>, and they’re forced to confront the specters of their past.<\/p>\n

No distributor is currently attached to The Last Photograph, but that isn’t stopping the thriller from moving forward. The first official trailer was released today, pulling back the curtain on the passion project to reveal an emotional, surreal, and bloody affair. What starts as a search between the two troubled men grows increasingly violent and visceral as they trek further away from civilization. The green of the jungle gives way to artful, gritty depictions of gore that hint at how their journey spirals into madness from the overwhelming grief and isolation. It promises Snyder at his most excessive<\/a> with a story the director conceived himself.<\/p>\n

Collider Exclusive \u00b7 Oscar Best Picture Quiz
\n Which Oscar Best Picture
Is Your Perfect Movie?
\n Parasite \u00b7 Everything Everywhere \u00b7 Oppenheimer \u00b7 Birdman \u00b7 No Country<\/p>\n

Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be \u2014 and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.<\/p>\n

\ud83e\ude9cParasite<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udf00Everything Everywhere<\/p>\n

\u2622\ufe0fOppenheimer<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc26Birdman<\/p>\n

\ud83e\ude99No Country for Old Men<\/p>\n

\n FIND YOUR FILM \u2192\n <\/p>\n

01<\/p>\n

What kind of film experience do you actually want?
\n The best movies don’t just entertain \u2014 they leave something behind.<\/p>\n

\n ASomething that pulls the rug out \u2014 that makes me think I’m watching one kind of film and then reveals I’m watching another entirely.
\n BSomething overwhelming \u2014 funny, sad, absurd, and genuinely moving, all at once.
\n CSomething grand and weighty \u2014 a film that makes me feel the full scale of what I’m watching.
\n DSomething formally daring \u2014 a film that pushes what cinema can even do.
\n ESomething lean and relentless \u2014 pure tension with no wasted frame.\n <\/p>\n

NEXT QUESTION \u2192<\/p>\n

02<\/p>\n

Which idea grabs you most in a film?
\n Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?<\/p>\n

\n AClass, inequality, and what people are willing to do when desperation meets opportunity.
\n BIdentity, family, and the chaos of trying to hold your life together when everything is falling apart.
\n CGenius, moral responsibility, and the catastrophic weight of a decision you can never take back.
\n DEgo, legacy, and the terror of becoming irrelevant while you’re still alive to watch it happen.
\n EEvil, chance, and whether moral order actually exists or if we just tell ourselves it does.\n <\/p>\n

NEXT QUESTION \u2192<\/p>\n

03<\/p>\n

How do you like your story told?
\n Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.<\/p>\n

\n AGenre-twisting \u2014 I want it to start in one lane and migrate into something completely different.
\n BMaximalist and genre-blending \u2014 comedy, action, drama, sci-fi, all in one ride.
\n CEpic and non-linear \u2014 cutting between timelines, building a mosaic of cause and consequence.
\n DA single unbroken flow \u2014 I want to feel like I’m living it in real time, no cuts to safety.
\n ESpare and precise \u2014 every scene doing exactly what it needs to do and nothing more.\n <\/p>\n

NEXT QUESTION \u2192<\/p>\n

04<\/p>\n

What makes a truly great antagonist?
\n The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?<\/p>\n

\n AA system \u2014 invisible, structural, and almost impossible to fight because it has no single face.
\n BThe self \u2014 the ways we sabotage, abandon, and fail the people we love most.
\n CHistory \u2014 the unstoppable momentum of events that no single person can stop or redirect.
\n DThe industry \u2014 the machinery of culture that chews up talent and spits out irrelevance.
\n EPure, implacable evil \u2014 a force so certain of itself it becomes almost philosophical.\n <\/p>\n

NEXT QUESTION \u2192<\/p>\n

05<\/p>\n

What do you want from a film’s ending?
\n The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?<\/p>\n

\n AShock and inevitability \u2014 a conclusion that recontextualises everything that came before it.
\n BEarned emotion \u2014 I want to cry, laugh, and feel genuinely hopeful, even if the world is a mess.
\n CDevastation and grandeur \u2014 an ending that makes me sit in silence for a few minutes after.
\n DAmbiguity \u2014 something that leaves enough open that I’m still thinking about it days later.
\n EBleakness \u2014 an honest refusal to pretend the world is tidier than it actually is.\n <\/p>\n

NEXT QUESTION \u2192<\/p>\n

06<\/p>\n

Which setting pulls you in most?
\n Where a film takes place shapes everything \u2014 mood, stakes, what’s even possible.<\/p>\n

\n AA gleaming modern city with a hidden underside \u2014 beauty masking rot, wealth masking desperation.
\n BA collapsing suburban life that opens onto something infinite \u2014 the multiverse of a single ordinary person.
\n CThe corridors of power and science at a world-historical turning point \u2014 where decisions echo for decades.
\n DThe grimy, alive chaos of New York and Hollywood \u2014 fame as both destination and trap.
\n EVast, indifferent landscape \u2014 desert and highway where violence arrives without warning or reason.\n <\/p>\n

NEXT QUESTION \u2192<\/p>\n

07<\/p>\n

What cinematic craft impresses you most?
\n Every great film has a signature \u2014 a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.<\/p>\n

\n AProduction design and mise-en-sc\u00e8ne \u2014 every frame composed to carry meaning beneath the surface.
\n BEditing and tonal control \u2014 the ability to move between registers without losing the audience.
\n CScore and sound design \u2014 music that becomes inseparable from the dread and awe of what you’re watching.
\n DCinematography as performance \u2014 the camera not recording events but participating in them.
\n ESilence and restraint \u2014 what’s left unsaid and unshown doing more work than any dialogue could.\n <\/p>\n

NEXT QUESTION \u2192<\/p>\n

08<\/p>\n

What kind of main character do you root for?
\n The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.<\/p>\n

\n ASomeone smart and resourceful who makes increasingly dangerous decisions under pressure.
\n BSomeone overwhelmed and ordinary who turns out to be capable of something extraordinary.
\n CA brilliant, tortured figure whose gifts and flaws are inseparable from each other.
\n DA self-destructive artist whose ego is both their superpower and their undoing.
\n EA quiet, principled person trying to make sense of a world that has stopped making sense.\n <\/p>\n

NEXT QUESTION \u2192<\/p>\n

09<\/p>\n

How do you feel about a film that takes its time?
\n Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.<\/p>\n

\n AI love a slow build when I know the payoff is going to be seismic \u2014 patience for a devastating reveal.
\n BGive me relentless momentum \u2014 I want to feel breathless and emotionally spent by the end.
\n CEpic runtime doesn’t scare me \u2014 if the material demands three hours, give me three hours.
\n DI want it to feel propulsive even when nothing is technically happening \u2014 restless energy throughout.
\n EDeliberate and unhurried \u2014 I want dread to accumulate in the spaces between the action.\n <\/p>\n

NEXT QUESTION \u2192<\/p>\n

10<\/p>\n

What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema?
\n The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?<\/p>\n

\n AUnsettled \u2014 like I’ve just seen something I can’t fully explain but can’t stop thinking about.
\n BMoved and energised \u2014 like the film reminded me what actually matters and gave me something to hold onto.
\n CHumbled \u2014 like I’ve been in the presence of something genuinely important and overwhelming.
\n DExhilarated \u2014 like I’ve just seen cinema doing something it’s never quite done before.
\n EHaunted \u2014 like a cold, quiet dread that stays with me for days.\n <\/p>\n

REVEAL MY FILM \u2192<\/p>\n

The Academy Has Decided
\n Your Perfect Film Is\u2026<\/p>\n

Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.<\/p>\n

Parasite<\/p>\n

You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously \u2014 that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it’s ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that \u2014 a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.<\/p>\n

Everything Everywhere All at Once<\/p>\n

You want it all \u2014 and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn’t want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point \u2014 because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it’s about.<\/p>\n

Oppenheimer<\/p>\n

You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale \u2014 films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important \u2014 to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.<\/p>\n

Birdman<\/p>\n

You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction \u2014 that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it’s about. Alejandro Gonz\u00e1lez I\u00f1\u00e1rritu’s Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor’s ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn’t be possible. Michael Keaton’s performance and Emmanuel Lubezki’s restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else \u2014 a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.<\/p>\n

No Country for Old Men<\/p>\n

You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil \u2014 implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.<\/p>\n

\n \u21bb RETAKE THE QUIZ\n <\/p>\n

‘The Last Photograph’ Is Packed With Snyder Collaborators<\/p>\n

The actual script for the film was penned by one of Snyder’s regular creative partners, Kurt Johnstad, who has worked with him since his historical epic 300. He was far from the only member of the team to have experience with the director, as both Martin and his co-star, Fra Fee<\/a>, have appeared in his past films, including the Rebel Moon duology. Legendary composer Hans Zimmer<\/a> also reunited with Snyder to provide the score. In an interview with Collider’s Maggie Lovitt<\/a> earlier this year for his Netflix psychological thriller, Unchosen<\/a>, Fee confirmed that The Last Photograph was “somewhere completed, waiting to be watched<\/a>” and spoke to the satisfaction of his experience making it a reality. He considered it an honor to be a part of such a personal project in a complex role that allowed him to travel to exotic sets and work closely with so many other of Snyder’s trusted cast and crew members.<\/p>\n

“Zack was, like, living out this passion project. There were such good vibes, and the Colombian crew was awesome. The aesthetic was gorgeous. Every location, every set was just a treat for the senses. But yeah, to get back to your initial questions, it’s so, so lovely to be asked to do that. Balisarius was quite a different character. The part of you that, the imposter syndrome part of you, whenever things like this happen, like when you get asked to do something, you’re just like, ‘Oh my god, really? Do you think I’m the right guy?’ You really do. But he saw me in it, and when I got there, I did really feel like in this person’s shoes. So yeah, it was a real honor, and he’s such a legend.”<\/p>\n

The Last Photograph has no release date yet. Check out the official trailer in the player above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zack Snyder has spent the last decade and change living primarily in the large-scale realm of franchise sci-fi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-586026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}