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Is the Justice League Snyder Cut for HBO MAX an Apology From Warner Brothers (VIDEO SCRIPT)
🕑 Added 2020-05-25 20:01:01 +0000 UTC
Short answer? Yes. LONG answer...!
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Readers, I’m absolutely sure that some of you do not care about the topic of today’s video
I have friends and mutuals who despite wishing nothing but the best for me and just want to see me succeed not only on this platform but life in general, do not give a damn about this subject for reasons that I completely understand.
I’m absolutely sure that they’re only playing the video just so that it can count as engagement for YouTube’s algorithm and are actually doing something else they believe is more worth their time than to hear more content regarding the Release The Snyder Cut movement because they want me to be successful, and I thank you.
/I’m of course talking about the announcement of Warner Brothers producing Zack Snyder’s Justice League; a new cut of the 2017 Justice League film that is serving as the highly demanded Snyder Cut of the movie that’ll be released to stream exclusively on the new WarnerMedia service HBO Max in 2021/
The initial announcement was made during a quarantine watch party of Man of Steel that was hosted by both Henry Cavill and Zack Snyder, and the social media team for HBO Max confirmed it immediately
And just as expected, the amount of people who signed up for HBO Max soon after SCYROCKETED upon the announcement
Meanwhile the one tweet HBO Max produced about Joss Whedon presenting a Directors Cut of HIS version that’s gonna be available the day the service launches pretty much got everyone like
(Ain’t no one come to see you Otis)
Readers, I would be lying if I said that I didn’t want this. Because I do. I’ve wanted this since the beginning
However, after learning about the money Warner Brothers and DC Films are gonna pour into it -- between 20 to 30 million dollars -- and even seeing the very branding for it, makes me realize that a lot of the things that happened in the past regarding the original production of Justice League, actually happened.
Like, you don’t name the Snyder Cut of Justice League “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” after you went out of your way in the past to assure us that the version we got in the theater was in fact his initial vision for the movie.
And it makes me sad, because if anything, this act shows me that along with helping to draw eyes to HBO Max, this move by Warner Brothers is -- in a way -- an apology.
Not to us first and foremost, mind you, but to Zack Snyder.
You see, the root of the problem regarding the Snyder Cut of Justice League trails as far back as 2013 when Dawn of Justice was announced during that years San Diego Comic Con.
Despite being hype for the project, I was still worried because the only writer attached to the project at the time was David Goyer, who -- outside of idea generation -- is a horrible writer and the living embodiment of a dudebro for superhero fans.
The reason why The Dark Knight was as good as it was isn’t because of David Goyer. It’s because Jonathan Nolan -- Chris Nolan’s brother and the creator of the show Person of Interest -- re-wrote the script. Know your history.
Then about a month after Dawn of Justice was announced, Ben Affleck was cast as Batman but only under the condition that he bring on board screenwriter Chris Terrio to work on the script. More than likely after reading the at-the-time script for Dawn of Justice and having Daredevil flashbacks.
Now I know we recently experienced a movie that utilized a screenplay of Terrio’s that was a bit divided depending on who you ask.
And I still believe it's a bit unfair to COMPLETELY blame him for what happened considering how many people initially passed it around, but whatever. Different video topic. The point I’M trying to make is that Affleck’s recommendation of Terrio made sense at the time.
He wrote the Affleck-starrer Argo which won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2013 Academy Awards, so on paper, he was a good candidate to do with Dawn of Justice what Jonathan Nolan did with The Dark Knight.
/Then one month later in September, David Ayer signed on to write and direct the first Suicide Squad movie for a 2016 release to follow up Batman v Superman, and kept in contact with Snyder to make sure that his story lined up with the storyline he was establishing with Dawn of Justice./
By that time Warner Brothers was SO CONFIDENT in the team that was established for these movies, that they greenlit Snyder’s Justice League follow-up project in October of 2014.
/Very similar to the Snyder Cut we’re getting in 2021, it would be a 4-hour epic that the studio decided to split into two films; part one premiering fall of 2017 and part two premiering two years later, along with solo movies for Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and (snicker) The Flash sprinkled in-between and afterward in order to establish a universe that could compete with Marvel’s own cinematic universe/
Then shit started getting sour
While Dawn of Justice apparently did well with test audiences, Warner Brothers wasn’t necessarily happy with the divisiveness and its performance when it was released to the public.
So much so that the studio executives were starting to second-guess giving Zack Snyder so much authority for the upcoming Justice League films, which started filming and production about a week after Batman v Superman was released.
It was then that the studio started to renege on giving Snyder Kevin Feige levels of narrative control over the DCEU, and began a course-correction for it
Not AFTER, but DURING.
To make matters worse; Justice League wasn’t even the movie that Warner Brothers started the course correction with.
It was David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, which, as I’ve explained in my video about it years ago, forced him to reshoot a lighter and a more fun tone for the film after already wrapping up initial filming...
And stitching together his original footage with the lighter footage that tested well into both the theatrical and director’s cut we publicly received after seeing the success of Marvel and James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy
That was also when Warner Brothers hired Geoff Johns to oversee the DC film division and be the ACTUAL Kevin Feige of the DCEU
In which both he and Joss Whedon helped with the rewrites for Justice League while Snyder was in the middle of filming it to give it a lighter tone, eliminating up to 90% of Terrio’s original script despite still receiving a writing credit...
And the studio pulled back the reins on Snyder’s initial 2 film agreement, making this outing a one-movie story under 2 hours long about the League coming together to stop Steppenwolf instead.
/My boy Owen Farrington from Owen Likes Comics actually did a well-researched and thorough breakdown of how messy the clash between Zack Snyder and Warner Brothers was over the tragic fate of the theatrically released Justice League movie, and covers a lot more of the foolishness that I have no choice but to omit from this video because of time. So make sure you check it out either through the link on the screen or in the description below./
Now we all know the story regarding the behind-the-scenes of Justice League that was made public knowledge.
Due to family tragedy, Zack Snyder stepped down as director in order to properly grieve and recuperate from the loss of his daughter, while Warner Brothers brought Joss Whedon on board to finish directing.
And for the longest, we thought that was initially the reason why.
/Even Warner Brothers assured us via press release when Whedon was named Snyder’s successor that they intended to keep the film true to his vision back when all of this information wasn’t public knowledge/
Or, y’know, it WAS, but they used it as an opportunity to try and save face.
But after the release and its initial failure, proof began to reveal itself that Zack Snyder didn’t step down from Justice League, but was instead FIRED from Justice League. Or at least used the tragedy that befell his family as a way for Warner Brothers to get him to leave the project.
And that’s mostly due to Zack Snyder himself, who would share storyboards for his original Justice League plans on social media and even reply to fans who were properly predicting his plans for his fully envisioned version while leaving petty-sounding hashtags that made it sound like Warner Brothers was at fault.
That, along with the participation of half the Justice League cast in the Release the Snyder Cut movement once all this established and alleged dirty laundry behind the initial production came to light, was what initially had individuals -- even me -- speculate that Warner Brothers and its DC film division truly did Zack Snyder dirty
That’s not to say that things haven’t changed since then. Geoff Johns has been replaced by Walter Hamada over at Warner’s DC Films division and have seen successes with DC properties that both have and haven’t been produced by Zack Snyder.
The ones that have being Wonder Woman and Aquaman, with the ones that haven’t being Shazam! and Birds of Prey.
One could even say that part of why the latter two films were so successful was because, thanks to them learning from the mistakes of the previous establishment with the production of Justice League, they were forced to reflect over their original director driven mandate and do better by them.
Two of the best examples of that relationship properly healing is Birds of Prey being allowed to exist in the DCEU timeline while still being rated R, and Todd Phillips’ Taxi Driver, I mean The King of Comedy, I mean Joker.
Now, I’m a firm believer of giving someone their flowers while they’re still alive. And while Snyder is in fact still alive, so many things were in place thanks to Warner Brothers to make sure that his initial vision for Justice League was dead on arrival.
And while I’m glad that Warner Brothers are willing to make up for that level of sabotage now that different hands are in power for the DC Films division, attempting to make up for it in the form of either a 4-hour special, the originally intended 2 movies running at 2 hour runtimes, or a six-episode mini series that’s been paraded since the news broke, might actually result in them taming a “sins of the father” type situation regarding why any of this was necessary to begin with.
By making this move, Warner Brothers has to be ready to address the whole cluster that was the initial production and machinations behind the scenes of the initial shoot for Justice League back in 2016.
They have to be ready to admit that the execs and shareholders at the time chickened out of the initial plan because they were disappointed in the numbers for Dawn of Justice.
They have to be ready to admit the reasons behind Snyder initially stepping down as director of the project other than the tragedy that befell his family.
By giving into the mixed pool of well-intentioned and douchebag fan demand by giving Zack the greenlight to carry on with how he initially planned for Justice League to go -- despite it only being an HBO MAX exclusive -- Warner Brothers must be willing to accept and address a lot of heavy, yet legit, criticism regarding how the previous establishment handled the DCEU before Shazam! and AFTER Dawn of Justice.
More specifically, Warner Brothers for their at-the-time investors and execs getting cold feet after the underperformance of the latter film -- which is ALSO the reason why David Ayer’s Suicide Squad was the Frankenstein’s monster that it was...
And them bringing on board Geoff Johns and everyone else that they did, to pretty much micro-manage and gut the initial script for it to fit and reflect a lighter tone.
Especially since Wonder Woman and Aquaman -- two of the biggest successes within the DCEU after Dawn of Justice during that era -- were both produced by Zack and Deborah Snyder.
Am I saying I don’t want to see the Snyder Cut? Absolutely not. While I appreciate the cut of Justice League we DID receive in theaters as per my review of the film, I’m definitely one of those individuals that had the production leave a bad taste in my mouth after learning what happened behind the scenes.
Especially as a DC Comics fan that didn’t mind the overall tone of the DCEU Snyder established, and was genuinely hype for the Darkseid-themed plot that Dawn of Justice foreshadowed.
However, I’m in the camp of, if the studio had just let Snyder initially do his thing in the first place and THEN course-corrected the direction of the DCEU if they saw fit from there, none of this would be necessary.
They wouldn’t need to worry about potentially addressing the initial production problems that would come to light upon making this move, because by making the move when they were SUPPOSED to, the need to potentially address it wouldn’t exist in the first place.
It wasn’t as if Aquaman WASN’T gonna bring in over 1 billion dollars in the box office if Snyder’s intended Justice League project failed; everything that happened after the version of Justice League we got would’ve still happened.
Yes, even Birds of Prey, R rating and all.
The only thing that would have changed is that the blowhard dudebros would’ve had to use a different “reasoning” to talk down Birds of Prey with their misogyny and use a different hashtag to hide it in other than Release The Snyder Cut
I personally hate that all of these things had to happen in order to get the Justice League film that we were initially promised almost six years ago.
And while I believe that the best apology is genuinely changed behavior -- which they have definitely shown they are capable of with Birds of Prey...
I feel that the only thing left that the new heads behind the DC division of Warner Brothers can do to help assure me that this creator-executive tug-o-war won’t happen again is that they own up to their mistakes regarding the initial production.
I’m happy that Zack is finally going to be given the opportunity to make the movie he originally intended to make. And as a fan of both DC superheroes and his take on them, I can’t wait to watch it.
I personally just wish that the circumstances that allowed him to finally make said Justice League movie had a bit more...justice behind it.
But, I digress, Readers. Your homework assignment for the day:
Write in the comment section below whether or not YOU’RE excited to finally see the Justice League movie as Snyder originally envisioned.
Or, if you feel like sharing with the rest of the class, whether or not you think this was a step in the right direction for Warner Brothers despite how’ve they’ve been handling DC properties since the cut of Justice League we initially got.
Whichever you decide to answer, I’d love to know your thoughts.
