Matthias Schweighöfer, who played the fan-favorite Dieter in Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, helmed the prequel Army of Thieves, centering on his safecracker character. The film, which premieres October 29 on Netflix, is a mix of genres that combines both action and romantic comedy.
Schweighöfer and Zack Snyder spoke to Screen Rant about tackling such an important project and having fun with the creative process.
Screen Rant: Dieter has a real shared voice throughout both films, Army of Thieves and Army of the Dead. Can you talk about maintaining the consistency of the character and making this your own?
Matthias Schweighöfer: We were building this fantastic foundation in Army of the Dead, with all these little character moments like the crazy scream and his nerdy stuff. It was so cool when Zack Snyder and Shay Hatten came up with that idea, with that origin story. It was so cool to show people, "Okay. Wow. That's where that's coming from."
Even he was screaming even more crazier in this film than in Army. You know man, I love Dieter, and I love this guy too. So it's, in a sense, it's cool and it's good to have him back.
How early on in shooting Army of the Dead did you know that you wanted to focus on Dieter for his own prequel spinoff?
Zack Snyder: It was pretty early on. It was actually the first scene we shot with Matthias, was him explaining the Götterdämmerung, and explaining the safes and everything. It was pretty much after that scene that I was like, "This is the movie. This is it. What he just said is the movie."
We went at it, working on it, and then about halfway through the movie, when we left to go to New Jersey, to shoot at Atlantic City, he and I sat down for a coffee and I said, "What about directing this and starring in this Dieter prequel?" He was like, "Are you serious? Is that real? Is that a thing?" I was like, "Absolutely." And so, he seemed into it.
Not only is this a great heist movie, it has tremendous action, but it's hilarious. I read that you researched and watched a bit of Pixar in order to hit some of the comedy beats. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Matthias Schweighöfer: What animation can show you is always, in acting, find really, the right timing at the point where you sell a joke. And even if you can't do it with editing, do it with acting. You have to do it with acting.
I focused on Pixar because I always wanted to do an animated movie, but while acting it. Because it's a high concept, it's tools you really need to have to sell a joke, and that's not easy. I thought it's great, you can learn so many acting skills from an animated film.
What inspired the Norse mythology part of Dieter's story?
Zack Snyder: Well my friend, Adam Forman and I had been talking for years about, "Oh, do we want to do a Ring cycle movie or something inspired by it?" And right now, I am doing a Norse mythology animated series at Netflix. We were in it. We were in it every day, and it made sense as a concept.
I know that we're going to be getting Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas, but are there any plans to revisit any of these characters?
Zack Snyder: You know what, you never know. I mean, we have a plan right now for a sequel to Army of the Dead. And as you know, none of these guys... Really, they're all, I guess, in some prison somewhere. It would be very... It would not be a big... It wouldn't be a stretch, maybe, to see them again at some point.
