Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
The Joe Rogan Experience. Showing by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day. What's going on, man? How are you? I'm good. Welcome aboard. Thank you for being here. No, thanks for having me. My pleasure. You made two of my all-time favorite movies. The Watchmen, which I fucking love. Okay, awesome. And 300. Okay, awesome. I have like a top 20 list.
I've never like formally put together a top 20 list, but those are in there.
Oh, that's cool. Well, first of all, I appreciate that because... You know, 300 was a complete labor of love and insane. Like, you know, 300 was... I was a Frank Miller fan for a long time, right? And I thought I would do another... I thought I would do Dark Knight Returns, frankly. That was the movie I wanted. I still want to do it. I always tell everyone, like, Dark Knight Returns.
If I could do Dark Knight Returns, I'd be done with comic book movies.
Really?
Well, because, like... If you've done Watchmen... Oh, sorry, I'm banging the mic. If you do Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns, like, for me, your legacy is set. So, like, Batman v Superman literally steals a lot of Dark Knight Returns. I'm not going to say it didn't. It did. But it's still not Dark Knight Returns. So I think that's still out there. But I always...
For a long time, I had 300 on my coffee table at my house when I was making TV commercials, and I'd have my friends over and be like, I'm going to make this one day.
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Chapter 2: How did Zack Snyder approach making '300'?
It's going to look exactly like this comic book. And they'd be like, yeah, yeah, sure it is. And I was having a general meeting with Gianni Nunari, who was one of the producers, and he was asking me about what I like. And he had... that graphic novel in his office, like on his table. And I went, well, okay, you know what? If I could do anything, that book right there, I would make that.
And he goes, well, what do you mean? How would you make it? And I literally just opened it up and I go, we'd film this. We'd film these pictures. It would look like this. And he goes, okay, that's cool. So you're saying you would just shoot the movie and it would look like this graphic novel. I go, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. But at the time, we couldn't sell it. We tried.
We went around town with it. Literally, we went to all the studios. They were all kind of like, yeah, sword and sandals. Wasn't it the same time that Troy was being made? It was exactly the same time as Troy. And when we went to Warner Brothers originally with it, They literally were like, we have Troy. So why would we want this? We have Brad Pitt. Like literally Brad Pitt is in our movie.
What are you? I go, we're going to do something crazy. We're not even going to shoot it outside. And they were like, what? Okay, you're nuts. And I go, yeah, we're not going to go for one shot outside. We ended up going for one shot outside for this, when the Persian messengers are coming, that super high-speed shot where the horses are kind of coming over the hill.
We shot that outside because we just couldn't get the horses going fast enough. It's the shot right before this, I think. Oh, no, it's this one. That's it. It's that shot. So that shot was the horses. That was a high-speed shot we did with Photosonics outside. But that was it. That's, like, the only shot outside.
Everything else is on stage. Because you couldn't get the horses to run fast enough inside.
Because we couldn't get the horses fast enough inside, yeah. And it was too expensive. That was a low-budget movie, you know, and we couldn't get... 300 was a low-budget movie? Yeah, because we, I mean, we shot it all on stage, 60 days. Like that's like why there's no director's cut of 300 is because every frame of film we shot is in the... You shot that movie in 60 days? 60 days, yeah.
Wow.
It was crazy, yeah. That's insane. It was... We were just... It almost killed us, but it was fun. But yeah, so when we took it to Warner Brothers, they were like... You know, finally, well, what happened was I did Dawn of the Dead, and then from Dawn of the Dead, I was supposed to do I Am Legend, right?
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Zack face while pitching '300'?
Just Eli's better because, like, I don't have to talk to, like, some, you know, other. Because, like, actually there's a scene to watch when you know where he bites the kid's face. And he pulls the flesh off the face. And I go, you know what? Let's just get E to do it because then I can just be like, okay, E, bite this. Now pull it, like, rip it off. Right.
The only troubling part of that is that there was a scene that we did in that movie where the ā because Rorschach's mom was a prostitute, right? So there's that scene where Rorschach's mom in the flashback is like, I should have had that abortion, right? And she slaps him in the face, right? Because he hears, Mom, is he hurting you? Because she's having sex with some John in there.
And then she opens the door and she's like ā He's like, is he hurting you? I should have had that abortion and slapped him. And I had wanted the mother to be topless in that scene. And they were like, nah, you can't have... And it's cool because his mother was visiting set that day and his mom was there and she was like, oh, you're putting our son in a movie?
We weren't together at the time, his mom and I, but we're really close friends. But she was an actress and I said... And they went, the only way that the woman could be topless is if it was actually his mom. And I was like, I go, Denise. And she was like, no chance.
Imagine asking your ex-wife to play a terrible prostitute who slaps their son and says, I wish I had an abortion. Holy shit. I go, come on. It's for the drama.
It's not like...
Oh, my God.
I know.
And she was like, you were insane.
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Chapter 4: What insights does Zack share about the filming process?
I'm talking about before the film starts. Two months or three months, I like, before the film starts of training.
That's enough time to get them into that kind of 300 shape?
It never is. These guys trained doubly as hard, and they knew a lot of them were athletes anyway, so they came in with, like... And Jerry had had more time. And Jerry trained with his own guy. Jerry didn't train with Mark. But, like, yeah, so... You know, it depends. Like, you know, Henry Cavill, Mark trained Henry for Superman. And that was a real... That was longer.
I think that was three months or four months. But yeah, it's never enough time because you just can't get it. Like actors, you know, they just... Ideally, you know, you'd have... half a year, six months would be perfect, really.
At least.
Yeah. I mean, just to get you, you know, visibly, you know, I always say the one thing is like, I always say the one thing about movies is that, and the thing about Mark that I love was that he went to psychological war with the actors in the best possible way.
You know, like he, what he was looking for, he would always say, I'm going to put you in your pain cave and you're going to find out a lot about yourself. when you're in there, right? And then when you come out of the workout, you're gonna grow. I'm gonna grow you here. And some people just don't, they don't like that.
Especially people who haven't like, fitness isn't like a lifestyle that they've chosen.
No, that's a journey that you have to be really dedicated to go down. If you're just a kind of a casual and someone comes along and says, I wanna put you in the pain cave, I'm not interested in that.
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Chapter 5: What insights does Zack Snyder share about the filming process?
And it's just unbelievable the amount of power that the guy... And he hits the ball out of the stadium and... And it goes literally, we had PAs in the parking lot. And they're like, the ball just goes over their heads and like into the freeway. You know, he's just a freaking.
Jamie, do you have that video that I sent you recently of that guy? There's this fucking guy who does this step in.
Oh, right. Sure.
Like the Happy Gilroy. Well, not quite that. Not quite? Not quite that, but with technique. And it's perfect. And the drive is insane. And the torque is insane. Again, this is coming from someone who doesn't know jack shit about golf. Look at this kid. Jesus. Jesus. I mean.
Jesus.
That is fucking insane.
The fact that he can actually, with that amount of backswing, the fact that he can actually hit the ball cleanly is unbelievable. Is that Chinese?
I don't know.
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Chapter 6: How does Zack Snyder approach the concept of genre in filmmaking?
It looks like Japanese to me.
Is it Japanese? This writing is Japanese.
So he's Japanese? Isn't it? There's a lot of, I mean, it's very popular in Japan. Yeah, his name is Japanese. But that fucking technique is mad. That's so cool. Let me hear that again.
The sound is awesome. There's balls that do that. Bro, I don't give a fuck what does that.
Look at where it ends. The club ends in front of his face, past his face, near his left shoulder.
So much whip on the- It's amazing. That's crazy. But yeah, it's fun. That's wild. It was fun, actually, that time in my life, traveling around and doing all those TV commercials all over the world. I had a crew of guys. It was me and my boys, and we would just literally- Go one job, Papua New Guinea, one job, Germany, one job, Mexico, one job, Iceland, like over.
And we were just on the road completely out of our minds. And it was just, you know, and like whatever product we'd be like, OK, I'd be pitching.
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Chapter 7: What challenges does Snyder face with studio expectations?
The guys would be like, what are we doing next? I'm like, I got to get on a call. Like I have an agency and I get on the call in the hotel room and I pitch them and I'd be out of my mind. I don't know what I'm saying. And I'd come out and be like, how'd it go? And I think I got it. And they were like, how'd you, did you nail it?
I was like, yeah, I told him it's going to be like low angles and slow motion and it's fucking cool. And they were like, okay, cool. Let's go. And I, and it was just this, we were just in this machine. And, and, and frankly, I learned everything. Like I spent 10 years, you know, like the 10,000 hours thing. It literally, I spent 10 years with every production, uh,
problem because I was a director of photography I was a DP and the director and you know we were a pretty small show you know but we had giant clients anything you can think of so then when I went to make a movie it wasn't like there was no there was no thing I hadn't seen, you know, it wasn't like I stepped on a set, like, Oh, I'm a first time director.
Everyone's like, Oh, this guy's a first time director. Like what's his, you know, what's he going to say? And I'll be like, there, there was like, the tools were my tools. You know what I mean? Like I was very comfortable with the tool set that I had in front of me, like more so than I probably should have been.
You know, I remember Matt Leonetti, who was the DP of Dawn of the Dead, that was my first movie, was, like, halfway through the thing, he's like, you know, you know what you're doing. Like, you know what I mean? Like, you know what you're doing. Like, he goes, they can't fire you now. Because, like, we were halfway through. Because, like, I was so diligent.
Like, on my first movie, I was so scared. You know, Scott Stuber, who was the executive at Netflix, who... was my executive on Army of the Dead. He was the one that hired me to do Dawn. And I was so I wanted to do such a like I wanted to be so conscientious and I was so scared of like going over budget and not nailing it and making sure it was cool and all that.
Matt Leonetti at one point was like, look, man, you got to just fuck it. Make it cool now. Don't give a fuck. Just do what you think. And it was such great advice because I think the movie's edge and all the coolness in the movie and the man comes around and all the weirdness, the whole montage with the Richard Cheese song in the middle, that was all just me going, all right, good. Thanks, Matt.
I'm going to just go. And he goes, good. Cause like, he goes, otherwise he goes, you're just going to make a movie that this zombie movie is going to disappear. You know, unless you fucking add your sauce. Yeah. Go. You got to add your sauce. Cause he goes, otherwise it's like, look, another zombie movie. Like who cares? Right. Like he goes, you, he goes, I know, you know, what's cool.
Well, you made it fun.
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Chapter 8: How has personal experience influenced Snyder's filmmaking?
I think that that was the whole thing for me. It was like, how do you make a B movie? that's self-aware that it's a B-movie, right? And in that self-awareness, it lets you off the hook to enjoy it because you can still be smart, like you deconstructed the genre. Because I've always been fascinated with genre and the deconstruction of genre I'm a genre filmmaker.
I always say to everybody, people are like, what kind of film? I'm a genre filmmaker. And that is to say that in genre, though, you can explore philosophy. You can explore mythology, especially, which is like myth is my main... We make myth, modern myth. Movies are modern myth. Superhero movies are modern myth. Is it not the same when you say...
Like, we have Superman, right, and Batman or whatever. Are they not... the mythic answer to a lot of modern questions about how we should live. You say, Superman, is he not an invention, a 20th century invention that says to us, all the fucking shit that we run up against, whether it be war or class struggle or whether it be interrelationships between different countries,
Does Superman not appear in answer to us primitive brains trying to figure out where we are? You make a guy like Superman so he can answer some of those questions. He can represent a point of view that is not helpless in the face of... The insanity that is like, you know, the problems of the 20th century. And I think in Batman in the same way, he's an answer to like urban. What is urban?
The urban jungle needs a myth, you know, just like the ancient jungle needed a myth or the ancient, you know, those all like in those days we'd say like, why is the volcano erupting? Right. but now we say, cause we didn't know, you know, we were just like, I guess it's the gods are mad, you know?
Right.
And, but now we have, now the problem is like, why am I, why do I feel helpless in the face of technology or whatever? Right. You know? So we need an answer. We need an additional answer. And I think that's what, and that's what I've always, and I feel like genre has allowed me to make those comments, you know? And I think, and it, you know, look,
the funny thing about, you know, what I always find interesting, you know, the thing that I always find fascinating about sort of the movies I've made and how they've landed on pop culture is that like, I remember like in the last article, it was like, it said, Zack Snyder, love him or hate him. Right. Like, and I'm like, hate him. Like what? I don't understand. Like what?
It's just, it's a movie, you know, like it's not, I mean, you look at Rebel Moon, you're like, okay, well there's not a lot. It's not, it's not, It's not weird enough. It's not offensive enough to hate him for, right, in my opinion.
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