Exclude transitive dependencies from distZip task

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I have a multi-module project. Only a single module produces the executable jar that need to run the code. I am using the application plugin with allows me to generate a zip file but I noticed the zip files contains many transitive dependencies from different version of the jar files. I want to exclude those files different versions of the jar.

I have tried to add

configurations.all {
    resolutionStrategy {
        // fail eagerly on version conflict (includes transitive dependencies)
        // e.g. multiple different versions of the same dependency (group and name are equal)
        failOnVersionConflict()

        eachDependency { DependencyResolveDetails details ->
            if (details.requested.group + ":" + details.requested.name == 'io.dropwizard.metrics:metrics-core') {
                details.useVersion "3.1.2"
                //details.useTarget "com.google.guava:guava:15.0:cdi1.0"
            }
        }
        // cache dynamic versions for 10 minutes
        cacheDynamicVersionsFor 10*60, 'seconds'
        // don't cache changing modules at all
        cacheChangingModulesFor 0, 'seconds'
    }
}

and

applicationDistribution.with {
    exclude '**/junit-4*.jar'
    exclude '**/hamcrest-core-1*.jar'
    exclude '**/commons-collections-3*.jar'
    exclude '**/commons-lang-2*.jar'
    exclude '**/jersey-apache-client-1*.jar'
    exclude '**/jetty-util-6.*.jar'
    exclude '**/metrics-core-2*.jar'
}

but the resulting jar still have those files when I list it.
metrics-core-2.2.0.jar
metrics-core-3.0.2.jar
metrics-core-3.1.2.jar