Matthijs Van Heijningen Says Zack Snyder's 'Army Of The Dead' Is Not Happening

Back in 2008, commercial filmmaker Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. signed on to make his feature directing debut on the Zack Snyder-developed Army of the Dead, a follow-up to Snyder's 2004 zombie pic Dawn of the Dead. When the project stalled, van Heijningen went on to helm Universal's The Thing instead, but continued to harbor hopes that Army of the Dead would take off eventually; as recently as this past fall, van Heijningen was telling outlets that Army of the Dead had could still be revived at Warner Bros.

However, the months since then have apparently worn away at van Heijningen's optimism, because he's now saying that the project is unlikely to happen. Read his comments after the jump.

"I don't know if that's going to happen – it was really expensive, because it was going to have to shoot in Las Vegas," he told Movie Hole in a recent interview. "They didn't really want us to shoot in Las Vegas – because of the expense of shooting in Las Vegas. I really don't think it's going to happen."

Given how poorly van Heijningen's The Thing and Snyder's Sucker Punch fared at the box office, it's not tough to see why Warner Bros. would want to play it safe. It's possible that if Snyder's Man of Steel, also at Warner Bros., exceeds expectations, he could use that to help turn things around. Based on van Heijningen's comments, though, I wouldn't hold my breath.