so I originally wrote three pages of the
script about the Snider cut of Justice
League in December 2017 then shelved it
because the writing was going a bit slow
and I figured that by the time I got it
out it would have blown over and no one
would care anymore
well now it's December 2019 so let's
talk about why the Zack Snyder cut of
Justice League both does and does not
exist all right a bit of background
Warner Brothers Justice League
the last Snyder helmed entry in the DC
extended universe and a direct sequel to
2016 s Batman V Superman dawn of Justice
opened on November 17th 2017 to largely
middling reviews and lukewarm audience
reception the film which cost between
300 and 350 million dollars excluding
promotion underperformed at the box
office
surpassing its strict production budget
with a worldwide box office of a little
under 660 million but falling far short
of the billion dollar return Warner
Brothers was hoping for which would have
placed it in the same competitive
category as Disney Star Wars and
Avengers films the film has turned a
reasonable profit in the long run
between box office and home release but
you don't put 350 million dollars into a
movie just to get a reasonable profit
ardent fans of the franchise have pinned
the film's lack of success on a
combination of studio meddling and a
conspiracy of critics who fans claim are
determined to see the DC extended
universe fail the first of those is
wishful thinking while the second is
pure fantasy now the final run of
Justice League's development was
troubled in May of 2017 following the
tragic death of his daughter Zack Snyder
withdrew as head of the project to be
with family and focus on grieving
simultaneously Joss Whedon was brought
on board to take his place and helm the
final delivery of the film while this
was initially presented as Joss
essentially just running it in and
overseeing some minor additional
photography Snyder had already planned
prior to his departure Joss's
involvement rapidly ballooned rumors had
already been circulating the
brothers weren't happy with the film
including specific allegations that
executives called the film unwatchable
after a screening in April the suspicion
is that while Snyder stepped back for
reasons of personal tragedy this
provided the opportunity for executives
at Warner Brothers to cut him out
entirely this suspicion is supported by
the expansion of the additional
photography from two weeks to two months
with an estimated cost of around twenty
five million dollars this additional
photography included a particularly
high-profile conflict with Superman
actor Henry Cavill role on the venn
upcoming Universal film Mission
Impossible six the required Warner
Brothers to digitally remove cavils
mustache from all the new footage an
effect that is charitably not very good
as an end result critics and audiences
largely agree that the final film
distinctly feels like an uneven mashup
of the two directors styles not a merger
but more like two different films
starring the same actors had just been
cut together a particularly aggressive
slice of the fandom has in response
started a petition demanding that Warner
Brothers released Zack Snyder's version
of the movie the film as it was before
Whedon was brought on board under the
banner released the Snyder cut Zack
Snyder himself has over the course of
2019 increasingly leaned in on the
release the Snyder cut phenomenon which
I I mean it makes sense
it directly serves his ego and the fact
that Warner Brothers hasn't let him
anywhere near a director's chair since
2017 to the point that Snyder had to
take army of the Dead to Netflix after a
seven film run with Warner's in early
December 2019 Zack Snyder posted a photo
on V row of a rack of film canisters
labeled Justice League director's cut
running time 214 minutes with the
overlaid text is it real does it exist
of course it does so does the Snyder cut
exist well as the image says of course
it does
depending on your definition of exists
now just to be clear there is saved
to a hard drive somewhere a version of
the film Justice League that could be
called the Zack Snyder cut there is a
rack of
canisters containing a
three-and-a-half-hour version of Justice
League these are the Snyder cut the
problem is that it doesn't look like
this it looks like this
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that right there is part of the leaked
work print of x-men origins Wolverine a
version of the film as it existed about
three months before release it is highly
instructive for our purposes here
because it clearly demonstrates the
piecemeal nature in which effects-heavy
films are finished the films aren't made
like Apocalypse Now anymore where
there's a million feet of footage the
director can endlessly recombine into a
more or less finished movie almost every
single frame of Justice League involves
some degree of manipulation elements
like sky replacements fog and particle
effects vehicle replacements background
signs logos costumes so on so forth now
the petition writers assert that there
is a more or less complete snyder
version of the movie stemming from
misunderstanding some tweets by larry
fong talking about the digital
intermediary process the petitions
conspiracy hinges on a misunderstanding
of the term picture lock so first we
need to talk about picture lock it is
not the point where the image is
complete but the point where these shot
choices shot length scene order and core
editing are more or less done in
practice it's a very loose term and the
euphemistic phrase soft lock is often
thrown around on productions it's not a
physical state but a social agreement
between departments to stop changing
things though changing things still
happens a lot the point of picture lock
is to get the film to a point where
other post-production departments like
digital graphics digital effects fully
sound mixing and score can start working
without too much of a risk that their
work is going to go to waste
that they're not going to spend a week
rotoscoping wires just for the shot to
be replaced with an alternate take or a
different angle once they're done and
again that still happens all the time
this all means that picture lock-on
effects heavy films tend to roll out in
chunks with scenes or even shots being
blocked on a rolling basis in order to
allow the effects team to get to work
since digital effects on films like
Justice League can take upwards of two
years this even leads to some scenes
being edited and locked while the movie
is still being shot again x-men origins
is
highly instructive there are scenes and
shots that are identical to their
theatrical versions including fully
score and color grade but these are
right next to scenes that are ungraded
incomplete with temp effects and score
and remember this version was a mere
three months before the film was
released a version of Justice League
from over six months before release is
going to be even more extreme especially
since there were segments Snyder was
already planning to reshoot or do extra
photography for so when Justice League
went into 8 weeks of additional
photography there were three possible
outcomes for any given scene that Snyder
already planned to reshoot one the scene
was shot according to his instructions
to the scene was shot but changed from
his plan or three the scene was never
shot at all that leaves a lot of
potential holes in any possible Snyder
cut including scenes that now literally
just don't exist so now let's take a bit
to talk about what reshoots and
additional photography are because
they're a thing that's been in a much
higher public profile in the last few
years following a series of films that
underwent extensive reshoot slate in
production and this includes Josh
Trank's Fantastic Four David Ayer
Suicide Squad gareth edwards rogue one
modern effects heavy films all have a
phase of additional photography and
reshoots it's a very normal thing the
movies are so big and complex with so
much that involves actors working
opposite tennis balls in an empty
greenroom that it's inevitable that some
of it just isn't going to stitch
together typical routine boring reshoots
consists of correcting eye lines maybe
redoing a few lines or a bit of action
to make it all flow maybe a subplot is
dropped during editing and a new minute
or two of dialogue is written to patch
the gaps left behind or test audiences
don't understand why a thing happens so
a quick insert is created to make it
more obvious or maybe in the case of
Suicide Squad in addition to being six
hours long the producer decides the
Steppenwolf is now going to be the
villain of Justice League so you now
need to rewrite and reshoot everything
in your movie that directly involves
antagonists these more dramatic
instances in recent years are films that
are in some state real or imagined that
the studio considers to be dire whether
they consider it to be unmarketable or
possibly actively bad the released
version of Fantastic Four is abysmal
but the tranq cut was probably not in
and of itself any better because the
tranq footage isn't good it's worth
noting here that while the theatrical
cut of Justice League is substantially
different from the state of the film
when Snyder left no one has disputed
that the core plot remained untouched I
mean it's still a sequel to Batman V
Superman there are still the fundamental
problems with the way that Snyder tells
a story that were unlikely to just
suddenly disappear especially when
Snyder himself has talked a lot about
how much dropped footage was setups for
later movies what I'm saying is the
Snyder cut almost certainly had very
real problems the next critical factor
is the substantial change in planned
runtime as of August 2017 Warner's were
telling film buyers to expect a 170
minute runtime a length that was cut by
almost an hour down to 118 minutes in
October
even a 170 minute version of the film is
still 44 minutes shorter than the 10
real director's cut photographed for
vero that 10 real version was never
going to go to audiences the economics
of theatrical distribution are pretty
hostile to films over three hours long
even during the aughts well Lord of the
Rings was riding high and movie runtimes
definitely crept upwards blockbuster
films like The Dark Knight and Watchmen
still came in under three hours
exhibitors really aren't super fond of
any movie over two and a half hours
because that's getting into the range
where there's not a lot of time to turn
over the theater between shows if you
still want to fit in three showings per
screen per night and once you're at
three hours it's basically impossible to
do three showings without paying staff
to stay until 3:00 a.m. which is really
not worth it unless it's a film that can
guarantee butts in seats even in 29
shady-ass corporation Disney who are
actively screwing over exhibitors at
every turn were worried about the 3 hour
9 minute runtime of Avengers endgame and
that was the sequel to the fourth
highest-grossing film of all time
so unless sac Snyder is incredibly bad
at his job and completely oblivious to
the economics of making and releasing
films he wasn't done editing his movie
that's just a practical reality of the
job these issues the movie being
visually incomplete at the time Snyder
left the project planned footage that
was never shot and a work print runtime
that was never going to go to theaters
this gives us a pretty good idea of what
the Snyder cut would look like it's a
work print full of unfinished VFX overly
long scenes bloated side content and
missing connective tissue and like
Fantastic Four or even just Batman V
Superman before it it was probably not
actually any good by the accounts that
have trickled out over the past couple
years reports of characters and scenes
that were cut entirely it was probably
in a very similar state to Batman V
Superman and the pre reshoots version of
Suicide Squad bloated unfocused overly
long pointlessly grim and just not
particularly good the list of cut
characters including Adam Eleanor stone
nudists volka Darkseid desaad Martian
Manhunter integra points to a movie
suffering from all the same problems as
the film's that preceded it overstuffed
with set up in cameos at the expense of
pacing payoff and plot now despite all
those very likely problems I would
actually be really interested in seeing
the Snyder cut especially a work print
version of the film I have no problem
watching an incomplete movie where 10
minutes are just storyboards or previz
comps of a tipos Superman flying at a
static image of Steppenwolf or
actors in a green room wearing
motion-capture pajamas if anything I
think a work print would be more
interesting than a finished version it
is however unlikely to happen anytime
soon not impossible but really really
unlikely the biggest problem is that
Warner's and Snyder himself are unlikely
to be willing to release a
print nevermind that there might be
substantial complications with the
various guild and union contract
stemming from commercially releasing a
work print when a theatrical version
exists now that part can probably be
sidestepped by releasing it as a bonus
feature with a special edition blu-ray
so you're not technically just selling
the work print but I I don't know
because no one to my knowledge has ever
done it especially not for a movie of
this scope but springing from that
problem that Warner's and Schneider
don't want to release an incomplete
movie is the cost VFX experts have
estimated that the combined cost of
finishing scenes that weren't completed
and redoing scenes that were changed
would probably cost another 30 to 40
million dollars and it's a big question
mark as to whether or not that would be
worth it when the result is unlikely to
draw mass attention or even
substantially improve the end product
the last and biggest hurdle is ego
Warner Brothers just doesn't want to
because they hold all the cards and
don't want to look like they caved or
made the wrong choice when they cut
Snyder out and reworked the movie from a
political perspective it is seemingly a
lose-lose for Warner Brothers like okay
either the Snyder cut sucks just as bad
as batman v superman
being the same bloated incoherent mess
as Snyder's other two Superman movies or
it's amazing if the movie isn't
particularly good or it's even only kind
of slightly better than they look like
suckers for spending tens of millions of
dollars finishing a movie that only the
most hardcore fans and cinephiles will
care about if they finish and release
the Snyder cut and it's amazing then
they look like the dumbasses who ruined
a movie and the people who made that
decision then get fired and the people
who would get fired are the same people
who currently get to decide if it ever
gets released
so Warner Brothers doesn't have a whole
lot of incentive to release it either as
a work print or as a finished movie and
this is almost certainly why it didn't
surface as an extended edition
director's cut or even in chunks of
bonus features on the home video release
all that's unlikely to change without
substantial internal changes in
priorities or leadership however
those changes may have already happened
there are rumors that began circulating
in November 2019 that the Snyder cut of
Justice League will be available on
Warner media's HBO max streaming service
when the service launches in May 2020
using the cut as a teaser to draw
subscribers to a subscription platform
rather than selling it directly on home
video might just provide enough layers
of politically convenient cover for
Warner's to feel like it's a win
especially since the margins on a
subscription service are much higher
than on a single blu-ray the most
persuasive arguments supporting the
rumors is that on the two-year
anniversary of the film's release gal
gadot Ben Affleck and Jason Momoa posted
the hashtag on social media now the
reason that's persuasive is the gal
gadot and Ben Affleck don't tweet their
Twitter accounts are run by their
pollicis there's functionally no
personal content in contrast to Jason
Momoa whose Instagram is full of
personal stuff from selfies to political
statements defending the land rights of
Native Hawaiians the point is that
Affleck and Godot are unlikely to have
just tweeted the hashtag for fun and it
is reasonable to assume it's part of a
promotional campaign these rumors
vaguely substantiated insinuate the
Snider self-funded the completion of a
cut of Justice League and is at present
in negotiation with Warner's but rumors
being rumors there are also conflicting
reports that the version that might
maybe possibly be released to HBO max
might in fact be a work print a rumor
seemingly supported by Schneider posting
numerous screen grabs of incomplete
effects shots to his vero account it's
not much and I wouldn't normally include
it but the rumors are an interesting
narrative in and of themselves
regardless of whether or not the
Schneider cut does surface on HBO max
this possibility actually presents a
really interesting third outcome to all
of this if Schneider has self funded
completion of his version of the film it
would still be a compromised version
owing to scenes that remain on films the
lesser resources available when self
funding the finished work and it will
remain a hilarious setup for now cancels
sequels and spin-offs but it will
probably at least be a
really interesting comparison
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