After just two weeks, "Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice" has been dumped from the top of the box office, by a middling, even more terribly reviewed Melissa McCarthy comedy. It’s perhaps a fitting way for the superhero movie to start its tumble down the top ten in the weeks ahead, and while Warner Bros. has shown a brave a public face for the critically slammed movie, it will certainly miss earning $1 billion worldwide, a magic marker for mega-tentpole success. Thus, perhaps it’s not a big surprise they are getting more involved in the followup.
Variety reports that studio suits are expected to be more "hands-on" with Zack Snyder‘s "Justice League," with production executive Jon Berg and Time-Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes in particular looking in as cameras start rolling today. The problem? There’s no Kevin Feige-like person from DC overseeing things, with both Geoff Johns and Diane Nelson apparently juggling already busy schedules filled with other projects. But maybe, hopefully, Snyder having to explain some of his decisions before he makes them will be enough to keep the movie from turning into another mess of half-thought-through ideas. At any rate, the movie is supposed to be "crowd-pleasing" and “extremely kinetic and visual,” with Fabian Wagner ("Game Of Thrones," "Victor Frankenstein") taking director of photographer duties.
Meanwhile, the rumor floating around (via Heroic Insider) is that Warner Bros. is going to release the R-rated cut of "Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice" theatrically to help pad out those box office numbers. I could see it happening as an event that occurs over a single weekend this summer, but maybe not much beyond that. It would certainly be a good promo vehicle for the home video this summer. In other words: we’ll see.
Lastly, Zack Snyder has explained why Superman wasn’t able to immediately find his mother in ‘Dawn Of Justice.’ “I kind of like the idea that he’s taught himself not to look, because if he looks it’s just neverending, right?” Snyder told IGN. “You have to know when, as Superman, when to intervene and when not to. Or not when not to, you can’t be everywhere at once, literally you can’t be everywhere at once, so he has to be really selective in a weird way about where he chooses to interfere.”
But surely he’d look for his Mom? Snyder does add that he did have a scene where Superman tried to find her, but also heard all the sounds of those who needed help, but wound up cutting it, because it was too dark. Go figure.