Last weekend, on the two-year anniversary of Warner Bros’ superhero team-up “Justice League,” the cast of the film wasn’t out there talking about how great it is, but instead, they were asking for the studio to release Zack Snyder’s original cut of the film. While no one in the cast has openly disparaged the work done by replacement filmmaker Joss Whedon, who came in before reshoots to finish production, it’s clear that almost everyone involved isn’t happy with the finished product.
Now, in a new report from the NY Times, the actual changes made by Whedon, which have been the subject of intense rumors and speculation for years, are being revealed. The article claims that the filmmaker added an additional 80 script pages to be shot as part of the film’s extensive reshoots, and the content of those pages completely altered what Snyder had originally worked on.
For those that don’t remember, the production of “Justice League” took a tragic turn when Snyder stepped away after it was reported that his daughter committed suicide and he needed to take time away from the film. The new report claims that WB then took the rough cut that Snyder assembled (now, affectionately called The Snyder Cut), and screened it for a select audience that included ‘Avengers’ filmmaker Whedon, “Wonder Woman” writer Allan Heinberg, and “Straight Outta Compton” writer Andrea Berloff. The end result was that Whedon would come aboard to helm reshoots and do his extensive rewrites.
According to the report, Whedon added quite a bit in those 80 pages:
“This version gave Gadot and ‘Man of Steel’ holdovers Amy Adams and Diane Lane far more to do, significantly trimmed subplots involving the Flash and Cyborg (one character, a love interest for Miller played by Kiersey Clemons, was cut entirely) and added more jokes.”
We all know how the release of “Justice League” went, as the highly-anticipated film was a box office disappointment and was critically savaged. It appears that all that work that WB put into trying to emulate the winning Marvel formula (with Whedon) completely backfired.
So, with that knowledge, it’s clear why so many people involved are interested in seeing the Snyder Cut, however unlikely that might be.