Netflix is about to drop its most expensive movie of the year

December is upon us, and as we gear up for Santa's arrival, Netflix is set to drop a whole load of new content to get us through the festive season.

As well as the second instalment of episodes of The Crown's final season and the much-anticipated Chicken Run sequel, Dawn of the Nugget, viewers are in for a treat with the streaming platform's most expensive film of the year.

Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon is so massive it had to be split into two parts, with the first set to drop this month.

And it's estimated to have cost a whopping $166 million (£130 million) to make, according to Vanity Fair.

The first instalment, titled Rebel Moon: Part One - A Child of Fire, focuses on a peaceful settlement located on the edge of a distant moon, which finds itself threatened by a tyrannical ruler.

As the conflict comes to a head, 'a mysterious stranger living among its villagers becomes their best hope for survival.'

But, while a lot of sci-fi epics rely on advanced technology and specials effects to bring their otherworldly spaces to life, Snyder opted to splash much of his budget on creating practical sets in a Santa Clarita canyon just outside Los Angeles.

There, crews built a Scandinavian-style village complete with homes, shops and barns, a stone bridge and even an entire river.

Netflix

The director also insisted there will be real crops for farmers in the flick to harvest.

Snyder's wife and long-time producing partner Deborah previously explained that it was originally supposed to be one movie, 'but it was in ‘Zack form'."

"It was 172 pages," she said, and was shaping up to be three hours long, which worried Netflix film chairman, Scott Stuber.

“Stuber was like, ‘On the service, under-two-hour movies really do better for some reason,’ even though you’ll binge-watch a series of eight episodes,” Deborah explained.

Netflix

“Zack said, ‘If you ask me to make this less than two hours, I’m going to lose all the character. You won’t care about these people. It’s a character story about how people can change, and redemption, and what are you willing to fight for…’

"So he said, ‘What if I give you two movies?’”

While a release date for the film's second half is yet to be announced, Snyder confirmed: “It won’t be long after. Netflix can do things that a traditional studio can’t do as far as how close together the movies are released."

Part one of Rebel Moon will drop on Netflix on 22 December.