Zack Snyder has been trying to make The Last Photograph for basically his entire career. Like, this movie predates his whole DC era. And now it's real, there's a trailer, and it's expected in 2027. It looks rough in the best way possible.

Per Polygon, the film was reported to be premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, though a follow-up report suggests the TIFF screening situation has an unexpected twist, so don't carve that into stone just yet. The first trailer is out there though, and I watched it twice. It's gritty, it's grim, and there's a photograph at the center of everything, which tracks because the title was never exactly subtle.

Quick backstory for anyone who doesn't have Snyder's filmography memorized (weird choice but fine): he first set the project up in the mid-2000s, after 300 blew up. It got shelved, revived, shelved again, and most of us just assumed it was one of those dream projects that lives in interviews forever.

Now it's actually happening and the trailer leans hard into the action-thriller side. Grisly is the word everyone's using and it fits. I won't spoil specific shots but there's a vibe here that's less slow-motion-gods-and-capes Snyder and more stripped-down, mean Snyder. Which, personally? I think that's when he's at his best. Say what you want about the guy (and everyone does, constantly), but when he locks into something small and nasty, he directs the hell out of it.

One big caveat though: reports say the film doesn't have a distributor yet. So the 2027 date is an expectation, not a locked calendar thing, and how it actually reaches audiences could shift depending on who picks it up. Festival crowds might be the first verdict on the movie itself, and those crowds can be brutal. In a good way. Mostly.

Dante's gonna have a take on this within the hour, I can already feel it. Probably something about how the runtime better be under two hours. He's been burned before. Meanwhile I'm just glad a movie that spent nearly two decades in development jail finally made it out. It genuinely gets me a little emotional, same as the physical media people finally getting their 4K. Things that take forever sometimes actually arrive.

I'll have actual thoughts once I've seen the whole thing, and knowing Snyder, there will be a longer cut of this movie within six months anyway.