Star Wars sparring with the R-rated genre continues as Zack Snyder revealed he pitched now-Netflix Rebel Moon to Lucasfilm as an addition to the sci-fi franchise.
During an interview with Empire magazine, the Man of Steel filmmaker said, “a ‘Star Wars’ movie” was “my original concept” for “Rebel Moon,” adding, “It was ‘Seven Samurai’ in space. I knew that the origins for George [Lucas] were a lot of those Kurosawa films.”
“The sale [of Lucasfilm to Disney] had just happened,” the director referred to the Disney acquirement of Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion in 2012.
“There was that window where, you know, who knows what’s possible? I was like, ‘I don’t want any of your characters. I don’t want to do anything with any known characters, I just want to do my own thing on the side.’ And originally I was like, ‘It should be rated R!’ That was almost a non-starter.”
Synder also revealed his doubts about the film getting the studio nod due to new characters and the expected R-rated story.
“I knew it was a big ask, to be honest,” the Justice League director continued.
“But the deeper I got into it, I realized it was probably never going to be what I wanted.”
Rebel Moon will land on Netflix on Dec. 22.