Since then, he has directed or produced a number of comic book and superhero films, including 300 (2006) and Watchmen (2009), as well as the Superman film that started the DC Extended Universe, Man of Steel (2013), and its follow-ups, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017), the latter of which had a director's cut released in 2021.

In 2004, he founded the production company The Stone Quarry (formerly known as Cruel and Unusual Films) alongside his wife Deborah Snyder and producing partner Wesley Coller.

[3] His mother, Marsha Manley (née Reeves), was a painter and a photography teacher at Daycroft School, which Snyder later attended.

[8][better source needed] Snyder was raised as a Christian Scientist,[7] and attended a summer camp in Harrison, Maine, run by the church.

The 60-second commercial depicts a group of horses traveling toward the site of the 9/11 terror attacks to pay their respects to the victims with a bow.

The film, based on a script written by Snyder and Steve Shibuya, was about a young woman in a mental hospital who fantasizes of escape with her fellow inmates.

He directed 2013's Man of Steel for Warner Bros., a reboot of the Superman franchise and the jumpstart to the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) and produced the prequel/sequel to 300, 300: Rise of an Empire (2014).

[17][1] On January 29, 2019, Snyder announced that he had signed on to helm Army of the Dead, a zombie heist thriller, for Netflix.

[22][23] Snyder also produced and directed two episodes of Twilight of the Gods, an anime-style web series inspired by Norse mythology, for Netflix.

[24] As of February 2021[update], Snyder was developing a King Arthur film, which he said would be a "faithful retelling"[25] set during the American Gold rush era.

[28] In May 2021 it was reported that Snyder had been developing Horse Latitudes, a film about two war photographers since 2011, although the project was on hold while he works at Netflix.

[29] After a period of relative silence on the film, he mentioned to DC Cinematic Cast on September 13, 2024, that Horse Latitudes had found an investor.

[32] In a November 2023 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Snyder stated that while he no longer had any interest in tackling superhero comic book adaptations in light of the DCEU continuity's conclusion with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, he only consider returning for the DC Universe if James Gunn invited him back to direct a faithful adaptation of Miller's The Dark Knight Returns comic book.

[3] As of November 2024[update], Snyder is set to direct a new feature action film for Netflix, centered around the Los Angeles Police Department, co-writing the script with frequent collaborator Kurt Johnstad.

What started as the final piece of a trilogy became its own story as it developed, separate from the main plot of the franchise, but part of the same world.

In 2023, the Stone Quarry gained the movie rights from Warner Bros.[31] Snyder often uses slow motion, particularly the technique of speed ramping, in and out of the fight scenes in his films.

[36]The Netflix production Army of the Dead was a special project for Snyder as he served as his own cinematographer, as well as this being his first film shot digitally.

[38][39] David Ehrlich of IndieWire wrote that Snyder's "name alone is enough to launch a thousand angry tweets, and the most passionate writing about his work is exclusively found in the comment sections of websites like this one.

[41] In 2009, Snyder listed Excalibur, Mad Max 2, A Clockwork Orange, Blue Velvet, and RoboCop as his five favorite films.

[7] The suicide of his daughter Autumn prompted Snyder to withdraw from post-production work on Justice League in May 2017 to be with his family, which resulted in Joss Whedon completing the film in his place.

[50] In 2021, Snyder partnered with Save the Children, a global child rights organization, to build a 100-bed temporary hospital facility in New Delhi to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic in India.

[61] He also won the Society of British Advertisers Award for Humor for his controversial EB Beer commercial "General's Party.

"[62][63] Despite his cinematic vision giving rise to polarized opinions, Zack Snyder is strongly recognized for bringing a very influential cinematic language to mainstream Hollywood from the 2000s onwards,[64] notable for adopting a high level of visual refinement, epic stories and films with deconstructivist and political narratives,[65][66] which is reflected in the existence of several films with a large scale of production and long duration, such as Zack Snyder's Justice League, that holds the Guinness World Record for the longest director's cut of a film compared to the theatrical release.

In a commentary about his horror-remake Dawn of the Dead, Stephen King, one of the most notable writers of horror novels of all time, described his movie as "scary" and "perfeclty crafted", especially its opening sequence: "Genius perfected would be Zack Snyder's 2004 Dawn [of the Dead] remake, which begins with one of the best opening sequences of a horror film ever made.

It was responsible for turning Snyder in a pop culture phenomenon, generating several references in the industry for its enormous adherence to the director's cuts.