While coming to the end of working on Justice League the follow up to his critically panned Batman v Superman movie, personal tragedy struck and Zach Snyder stepped away from the movie. Reports were that Warner Bros were losing confidence in Snyder's plans for a DC movie universe to compete with the then booming Marvel Universe, and this personal tragedy provided a convenient excuse to bring in Avengers Assemble director Joss Whedon to bring some of that marvel magic to DC.
Joss took the movie in a new direction requiring re-shoots (including, famously, a digitially de-moustached Henry Cavill
The result was not much better than the DC movies that had come before. It became a patchy hodgepodge of a movie, tonally inconsistent, and the reception was not great.
Knowing this, the vocal group of fans who had embraced the movies Snyder released were convinced more of his version of the film was shot than believed. Several reports from anonymous sources popping up all over the internet, suggesting plans of a trilogy of movies, a heavier involvement of Green Lanterns (in the Whedon version they appear in a flashback), the Justice League ending the movie and heading to Apokolips, home of Darkseid, losing the battle there at the end of movie two, and movie three being the truimphant return on earth (involving time travel that was hinted at in BvS before it became the crux of Avengers: Endgame).
These rumours led to the birth of the hashtag #releasethesnydercut - efforts by the fans to get WB to do what they did with the Richard Donner cut of Superman II and give the fans the alternative version of the movie so they can judge for themselves.
It was announced today that WB have agreed to do just that! It is going to be premiering on the new US-based streaming service HBO-Max They are throwing a further $20m at Zach to allow him to finish post production (music, effects, etc). It is not yet confirmed if it will be released as a single 4hr cut movie, or if it will be released in chapters ( much like The Mandalorian).
It is expected to be released in 2021 further info here: https://pressroom.warnermediagroup.com/us/media-release/hbo-max-releasethesnydercut
No word yet on how it will be available here in the UK or around the world.
I am quite excited, even though I know it is likely to be a similar quality to BvS and Man of Steel, but I think I love those movies just as much as I hate them...
Joss took the movie in a new direction requiring re-shoots (including, famously, a digitially de-moustached Henry Cavill
The result was not much better than the DC movies that had come before. It became a patchy hodgepodge of a movie, tonally inconsistent, and the reception was not great.
Knowing this, the vocal group of fans who had embraced the movies Snyder released were convinced more of his version of the film was shot than believed. Several reports from anonymous sources popping up all over the internet, suggesting plans of a trilogy of movies, a heavier involvement of Green Lanterns (in the Whedon version they appear in a flashback), the Justice League ending the movie and heading to Apokolips, home of Darkseid, losing the battle there at the end of movie two, and movie three being the truimphant return on earth (involving time travel that was hinted at in BvS before it became the crux of Avengers: Endgame).
These rumours led to the birth of the hashtag #releasethesnydercut - efforts by the fans to get WB to do what they did with the Richard Donner cut of Superman II and give the fans the alternative version of the movie so they can judge for themselves.
It was announced today that WB have agreed to do just that! It is going to be premiering on the new US-based streaming service HBO-Max They are throwing a further $20m at Zach to allow him to finish post production (music, effects, etc). It is not yet confirmed if it will be released as a single 4hr cut movie, or if it will be released in chapters ( much like The Mandalorian).
It is expected to be released in 2021 further info here: https://pressroom.warnermediagroup.com/us/media-release/hbo-max-releasethesnydercut
No word yet on how it will be available here in the UK or around the world.
I am quite excited, even though I know it is likely to be a similar quality to BvS and Man of Steel, but I think I love those movies just as much as I hate them...