Zack Snyder’s Netflix scifi epic Rebel Moon is a new way to make movies

Original sci-fi universes are few and far between in Hollywood, so it’s no surprise that Zack Snyder’s latest blockbuster Rebel MoonIt’s getting lots of attention. Netflix’s deep-space epic is set to be an entirely original world, that’s something like Snyder’s take on Star Wars. Rebel Moon got its first big reveal in Vanity Fair on Tuesday and while we didn’t learn a tremendous amount about the movies, we did learn a lot of very interesting stuff about how they got made.

Among the most interesting comments of Snyder’s in the story is about why Rebel MoonNow there are two movies, instead of only one. Snyder’s films are often on the long side, especially when he’s given final say over their content. Snyder’s cut of Watchmen Three hours, ten minutes is the length of this movie. Zack Snyder’s Justice LeagueJust over four hours. Netflix, according to Snyder, said that movies shorter than two hours tend to do better with its users — despite their habit for binging several episodes of TV in a row.

Image: Netflix

With that in mind, it’s not shocking that Netflix asked Snyder to cut Rebel Moon’s initial runtime down a bit. When the director complained that a shorter movie would destroy the character arcs, and the themes of the film, he decided to split it into two films instead. Snyder says this is different from other two-part movies. Rebel Moon’s parts will be released fairly close to one another thanks to Netflix’s non-traditional release schedule.

The two-part films, even though they are shorter in length, have an interesting compromise. According to Snyder, there will be two cuts of each movie release: one intended for all ages, and another intended for adults that hews closer to Snyder’s vision. Snyder frequently employs violence, swearing, gore, and nudity in his films, but it’s not clear just yet what objectionable content will be stripped from the more family friendly version of the films or if they’ll also have vastly different runtimes from Snyder’s version of the parts.

Image: Netflix

On the one hand, the idea of a studio pushing a filmmaker toward a more algorithmically friendly, mainstream version of their film is nothing new — take all of Snyder’s other films with director’s cuts for example. What is odd in this case, and exciting, is the idea of that marketable version of the film living alongside the version that’s closer to the director’s original vision, giving audiences their own choice on which option is best for them.

As for how all this turns out, we’ll have to wait for the official release of part one of Rebel MoonOn December 22,