Army of the Dead's visual effects team made a full 3D scan of the Las Vegas Strip for the upcoming Netflix film. Zack Snyder's zombie epic will follow a group of ragtag mercenaries-for-hire into the Nevada desert in search of a $200 million payday. Starring Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera, and a slew of others, Army of the Dead will be Snyder's first post-DCEU film and a return to the zombie genre for the director. Snyder originally broke onto the scene with his 2004 remake of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead.

Snyder is looking to up the ante with this film and its iconic setting as the group of safe-robbers are caught in the middle of an advanced army of the undead who come from Area-51. How they fight their way out remains to be seen and it's almost guaranteed that all of them won't make it out alive, but what is clear from Army of the Dead's trailer is that the Las Vegas Strip was meticulously recreated. Shots of the dilapidated Strip and the zombies that swarm it are littered throughout the trailer and producer Deborah Snyder details how that was made possible.

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Snyder told SR during a set visit in 2019 that Army of the Dead's visual effects team was given special permission to make a 3D rendering of the Las Vegas Strip. The producer says that, typically, film crews must be off the Strip by 10 AM, but this time limit would've made the task extremely expensive. Snyder says that the crew stood in the median of the Strip to get the 3D rendering of Las Vegas while helicopters flew overhead, capturing the details of the city.

Deborah Snyder: Actually, our visual effects team is in Vegas this week, they were there last week because they were scanning the entire Vegas Strip, so it's been quite an undertaking. And actually, I think we’re the first movie… normally they only let you on the Strip until 10 am, but if we could only be there at 10 am it would take us like 6 weeks to do it, which wasn't going to be very affordable, so they've allowed us extra time on the Strip, so we’re on the median and we have some scissor lifts and we had a couple helicopter days where they have lidar scans and photo geometry of all of Las Vegas so we'll use that and create a devastated Vegas from there.

Army of the Dead Elvis Zombie

Hollywood is no stranger to Sin City and neither is the zombie genre. Resident Evil: Extinction visited Las Vegas in 2007, but the city was covered in sand as the zombie apocalypse in those films had been around for quite some time. Army of the Dead's zombie outbreak happened sometime in the more recent past and the zombies in the film have taken over the city. While there will still be some of the typical walkers that are a staple in the zombie genre, Army of the Dead will also feature more advanced zombies that are capable of holding onto the city.

Where Army of the Dead will stack up against classic Hollywood films set in Las Vegas is up in the air, but the film's marketing is leaning into the neon aesthetic the city is known for. The connection between the undead and real-life casino-goers is also an apt metaphor present in the film and many of the zombies can be seen in showgirl outfits and other typical Vegas attire. Army of the Dead is clearly going for the Vegas vibe and lovingly recreating it is the first step in establishing the iconic location for the film.

More: Army Of The Dead Zombies Explained: Alphas, Shamblers, And Animals

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