International
Zack Snyder’s The Last Photograph to premiere at TIFF and seek buyers
Thriller will debut on September 12 as TIFF launches its first official content market
MUMBAI: Zack Snyder is developing a new kind of blockbuster, one looking for a buyer. The filmmaker’s independent thriller The Last Photograph is set for its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 12, where it will also be presented to potential buyers at the festival’s inaugural official content market, TIFF: The Market.
The film will screen at the John Bassett Theatre at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, which will host the new market alongside the festival.
A departure from Snyder’s better-known work involving DC superheroes, zombies and science-fiction spectacles, The Last Photograph is a jungle-set thriller starring Stuart Martin and Fra Fee.
The story follows an ex-DEA agent who heads into the mountains of South America searching for his missing niece and nephew after their diplomat parents are brutally murdered. He enlists a washed-up war photographer and former junkie, reportedly the only person to have seen the killers, setting the pair on a journey involving their own troubled pasts and the blurred line between the real and surreal.
Martin and Fee previously worked with Snyder in his Rebel Moon films.
The Last Photograph has a long history of its own. Snyder developed the project from his original story from the mid-2000s, following the success of 300.
In the early 2010s, Christian Bale and Sean Penn were attached to star before Snyder shifted his attention towards his DC projects.
Snyder eventually co-wrote the screenplay with longtime collaborator Kurt Johnstad, with whom he previously worked on 300 and Rebel Moon.
Now, after years in development, the film is finally reaching audiences but without a studio or streaming home attached.
That makes TIFF: The Market an important next stop. The film will be showcased as an acquisition title, giving distributors and streaming platforms the opportunity to bid for its rights.
For Snyder, it marks a return to a smaller-scale independent thriller after a run of large-scale franchise and science-fiction projects. For buyers, meanwhile, The Last Photograph arrives at TIFF with a recognisable filmmaker, two Rebel Moon actors and a project that has been in the making for years but its next chapter will depend on who decides to take the photograph home.
