Army of the Dead: Theo Rossi Says Zack Snyder is One of 10 Master Directors

[ShadeShadow]

In October 2019, Screen Rant was able to visit the Army of the Dead set and speak with key members of the production. Rossi, who plays Burt Cummings in the movie, praised Snyder's work as a director, calling him a "visionary."

What was Zack’s pitch to get you on?

Just “trust me.” And there's a certain, I mean what is there, maybe ten filmmakers that you would say “yeah, whatever, sure, whatever you want to do.” I mean, we can probably name ten amongst us all that you're just like, "whatever you do, it's going to be amazing." And, like, if something goes wrong, it's most likely not... it's something along a different level that you wind up hearing about in a story years later. But there are certain filmmakers that are just visionaries who have changed the game in one way or the other. Like, have elevated it. And their catalog speaks for itself. And I think Zack is one of those guys. And also he's just awesome. I mean, I don't think there's a person in the world that won't say that they love Zack Snyder. I think it's amazing.

Rossi went on to say, "There's certain people that I think are masters." He named Spike Lee, Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Martin Scorsese, and Christopher Nolan specifically. Rossi explained he had a positive experience working with Snyder: "With Zack it was everything that I thought because I had yet to work with someone that is that type of visionary and everything is to support the vision."

It's clear from Rossi's comments he enjoyed collaborating with Snyder on Army of the Dead. Considering the director's impressive career so far, it makes sense to call him a "visionary." Most notably, Snyder was an essential part of shaping the entire DC Extended Universe. Though it seems unlikely at this time that he'll return to the franchise, his mark will be on all future DCEU projects. That influence certainly qualifies him as a master director.

Perhaps the clearest example of Snyder doing all he can to support his vision is the Justice League Snyder Cut. Despite the fact it seemed impossible it would ever be completed or released, Snyder and his legion of fans made it happen. That showed an impressive level of commitment to the project that was pretty unheard of in Hollywood before. Based on what Rossi had to say, it sounds like Snyder is that committed to all of his movies, including Army of the Dead.