Is Zack Snyder Ready to Work for Dana White & Turki Alalshikh?

Ari Emanuel has the ethnical flexibility required to work for the House of Saud, can the rest of Hollywood follow his lead?

On Monday, news broke that Zack Snyder, the director of such films as 300 and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, will be directing, co-writing, and producing Brawler, “a new feature about a L.A. man who rises in the world of Ultimate Fighting Championship.” Snyder will be “teaming with Dana White’s UFC for the film, as well as His Excellency Turki Alashikh.”

As befits HE, Turki had plenty of flattering things to say about Snyder and his work.

“I’ve been a fan of Zack’s work for years, his unique style — from his iconic action sequences to his sweeping visuals and intensely emotional storytelling — coupled with his humanized portrayal of deeply-flawed characters is singular,” Alashikh said in a statement. “I couldn’t think of a better person to partner with to bring the UFC to the big screen. The Ring Magazine, with its 103-year legacy, will support to ensure the project’s success.”

What are UFC and Turki up to? What is their goal?

Surely, we’ve learned by now that the TKO-owned UFC is not a typical business that only looks at near-term financial outcomes. As Zach Arnold and I have written here many times, TKO has a multi-faceted agenda. While profit-seeking is the ultimate goal, they know that controlling the narrative contributes mightily to the bottom line.

As for Turki Alalshikh and his masters in Riyadh, they, too, are seeking profit, but they are also looking to burnish their national image. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has some serious needs in the way of image burnishing.

The TKO-Saudi alliance is a fascinating one, and it was built by pushing the most blatantly corrupt elements out of the fight game. But that doesn’t mean they’re kind and gentle.

Any film director going to work for Turki and TKO will need to check their artistic license at the door. The job is going to be glazing the UFC and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia first, making great artistic cinema last.

All of which begs the question, what were they thinking when they signed this particular director?

Why Zack Snyder?

Snyder, a veteran director who started out making music videos for the likes of Morrissey, ZZ Top, and Rod Stewart, has had a very successful run in Hollywood, specializing in zombie movies (Dawn of the Dead, Army of the Dead) and movies based on comic books (Frank Miller’s 300, Batman vs. Superman, Wonder Woman).

Snyder is probably most notorious for being at the center of controversy around the Justice League movie, which ultimately led to the 2021 release of “the Snyder cut” of that film.

The situation started when one of two things happened. Either the studio forced Snyder off the film after seeing his rough cut, or the tragic suicide of Snyder’s 20-year-old daughter forced him to drop out of the movie in the middle of production.

Either way, Joss Whedon completed the film, which was released in 2017 to mixed reviews and poor box office.

Over the next four years, Snyder’s fans launched a relentless social media pressure campaign that ultimately resulted in the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League in 2021.

Snyder’s fans’ war on Warner Brothers