Warner Bros. Spending $25 Million On ‘Justice League’ Reshoots

Earlier this year, the DC Films world was rocked with the news that Zack Snyder was stepping away from “Justice League” for family reasons, with Joss Whedon taking over the film during post-production. Part of his duties would be filming what was described as additional photography, a standard part of any blockbuster process. However, it now looks like Warner Bros. is seriously trying to fix or substantially tweak the huge anchor in their DC Films Extended Universe.

Variety reports that the studio is spending an eye-popping $25 million on reshoots for “Justice League.” Yes, pickups and additional scenes are standard operating procedure for blockbusters, but they usually don’t cost this amount of money, and they generally just take a week or two. In the case of this film, the reshoots have continued for two months now, to the point where it’s starting to interfere with the scheduling for some actors.

Most notably, Henry Cavill (sorry to burst your bubble if you really didn’t think Superman was coming back for “Justice League”) who is currently shooting “Mission: Impossible 6” and rocking a mustache for his role. So, Warner Bros. will have to digitally remove his cookie duster from the new footage, which is kind of hilarious.

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As for what Whedon is bringing to the table, the director, who is know for his wise-cracking material, is said to be punching up the dialogue and bringing “connective tissue” to the scenes between Snyder’s set pieces. Essentially, the action stuff is fine, but the scenes in between need work. And I would presume they’re trying to bring a lighter tone to the material overall, and move away from the grim seriousness of “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice.”

Don’t expect Whedon to get a directing credit, however. Instead, the studio is paying him a healthy salary, and also he might wind up with a screenwriter and/or producing credit on the picture. In short, the money will do the talking here. It’s a situation not unlike how Tony Gilroy was brought in to salvage “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.”

This isn’t WB’s first time at the reshoot rodeo. They also threw piles of money at “Suicide Squad” trying to fix that movie, and the result was a mixed bag at best, with both the studio and director trying to meet in the middle on a common vision. The seams definitely showed. It’ll certainly be interesting to see what results from the mix of Snyder and Whedon’s approach, but hopefully, it’s a far more cohesive result.

“Justice League” opens on November 17th.