Warner Bros. is so disappointed in the box office performance of Justice League that they’re changing up the way they handle their superhero movies going forward. The movie wasn’t nearly as divisive as Batman v Superman, but even those who appreciated Justice League‘s bizarre blend of tones and defend the movie can’t ignore that the movie failed to make the money a blockbuster of that size and cost should make.
Some diehard fans are convinced that if only director Zack Snyder‘s director’s cut could be released, the film would be seen in its originally-intended glory – without the contributions of Joss Whedon, who stepped in to direct reshoots after Snyder left the project due to a family tragedy. Now, a new rumor indicates that a Justice League director’s cut might be available on home video, but it won’t be the famed Snyder cut: if it happens, the rumor claims it’ll be an extended cut of the theatrical version overseen by Whedon.
The rumor – and again, we want to stress this is a rumor – comes from IGN and Splash Report writer Mario F. Robles (via The Playlist), who claims to have heard about a potential Henry Cavill Superman trilogy coming to Blu-ray:
For the home release of #JusticeLeague, WB is mulling over packaging it as a #Superman Trilogy, alongside MOS and BvS. And here's the kicker:
It would include an Extended Cut of JL.
BUT!
It'd be an extended version of the theatrical cut. Not Snyder's cut.
— Mario-F. Robles (@I_Am_MFR) December 6, 2017
Not long ago, someone who supposedly worked on the visual effects team for Justice League explained that a Zack Snyder cut of the movie doesn’t exist. I’ve written about this before, but let me recap:
Snyder hired Whedon to rewrite the screenplay before he had to step down as director, and Whedon directed the reshoots with an eye toward making them fit with the work Snyder had already done. (Whether or not he was successful in doing so is up for interpretation.) Secondly, a Snyder cut would require Warner Bros. to spend even more money on unfinished visual effects for the shots that didn’t make it into the theatrical cut, and since the movie’s budget (rumored to be north of $ 300 million) is a big part of why it has underperformed financially, it doesn’t make sense for the studio to spend millions more on VFX in the hopes of making a comparatively small amount back on home video sales of a Snyder cut from hardcore fans.
I don’t imagine an extended edition is going to differ greatly from the theatrical cut, because, as I stated above, paying for visual effects work is extremely expensive, and WB has already dropped a rumored $ 300 million on Justice League as it is. Still, the notion of fans clamoring for an extended edition of Justice League and the folks at Warner Bros. saying, “Sure, here you go…but there’s a twist!” seems like a total troll move on their part. Will the extended edition simply include some footage and scenes that Snyder already shot and completed that we’ve seen in early trailers? That seems like the most likely practical explanation, if they’re even actually considering this in the first place.
Nothing will ever make me feel sorry for the ride-or-die Zack Snyder fanboys that resort to threatening people on the internet over their opinions about movies. But if WB were to release a non-Snyder extended cut of Justice League on home video, I’d almost feel a tiny bit bad for them. Almost.
The post ‘Justice League’ Director’s Cut Could Be Coming to Blu-ray, But It’d Be Joss Whedon’s Director’s Cut appeared first on /Film.
