Zack Snyder has been chatting about an idea to split Justice League into two, and his ideal presentation for the upcoming The Snyder Cut.
The story so far. When 2017’s movie Justice League was released, it was a mess. Critically mauled and an underperformer at the box office, the post mortem was under way even while the film was still in cinemas.
As it pretty well known, director Zack Snyder never got to finish his take on the movie, departing the project before hefty reshoots were written and shot. Joss Whedon was brought in to finish the film, which had to come in at a mandated length of two hours, and no more.
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After a concerted fan campaign, Warner Bros announced earlier this year that Snyder would be given $20-30m to put together ‘The Snyder Cut’ of the film. This, we were told at the time, would involve starting post-production from scratch, with new effects ordered. Since then, the project has grown. Jared Leto is shooting new scenes as The Joker, whilst Ben Affleck is going back before the camera as Batman too. In all, around three to four minutes of newly filmed material is to be included.
The price has rocketed too. The project is now set to cost Warner Bros around $70m, a hefty investment for a recut of an existing film, and one that could have real ramifications if it succeeds. The Suicide Squad team for a start are likely watching this one with interest.
Yet Snyder, in a conversation with The Film Junkee, has revealed at one stage even with the original movie, he had toyed with the idea of splitting the movie in half. “There was a cut of the movie that I created that I said ‘this is too much for the studio’”, he admitted.
“The mandate was ‘make the movie two hours long.’ I cannot show them a four-hour version of the movie. I did have this idea where ‘oh maybe we could just split it in half and make it two two-hour movies’. My first idea was you show two hours, and then there’s like a month, and then the next two hours come out”.
This seems to tie to reports that The Snyder Cut will at the very least come in at around four hours of running time, and the current plan is to break it up when it debuts on HBO Max next year into multiple parts.
Still, Snyder in the same interview admits he wouldn’t mind a theatrical release. “My ideal version of the movie is the black and white IMAX version of the movie”, he admitted.
Imagine that.
A trailer for the Snyder Cut is reportedly imminent, and you can find the interview with him in full here.
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