A significant event for film comic book fans took place last week: director Zack Snyder officially announced that his version of the long-suffering film “Justice league“will lead the light thanks to the generosity of the streaming platform HBO Max. However, this will not be the film that he originally planned.
The history of the project itself is a great example of the incompetence of effective Hollywood managers who, in the pursuit of big money, step on all kinds of rakes, while simultaneously dragging out other people’s careers and dreams.
Disaster scenario standard: looking for success Marvel, Studio Warner bros I wanted to get hold of my movie universe. This is a logical move, given that the company owns a publishing house DC Comics. Zach Snyder was chosen as the architect, and the first film was “Man of Steel“. Since the project was important for the studio, in amplification the director was given Christopher Nolan – to show a die during trailersFrom the creator of the Dark Knight trilogy“
The result is … controversial. With a gigantic budget of $ 225 million released in 2013, the tape collected only 668 million, and the reviews were mixed. Many ridiculed the phallic design of objects on Krypton, a flickering camera, and Snyder’s obsession with the Bible.
However, the experiment in the studio was recognized as successful, and she gave the go-ahead to start the production of a whole galaxy of projects, including the sequel “Man of Steel“,”Shazama“,”Justice League“,”Aquamena“,”Suicide Squad“,”Wonder woman“,”Batman“,”Cyborg“,”Flash“and so on. In contrast to the fun spirit, Marvel Warner Bros. chose a darker and more cruel setting.
However, the main rule of the movie universe was violated: you can’t dump together a bunch of different characters right at the start, you need a smooth immersion in the world. In the end, the film should remain a film, not a mess. At Warner Bros. This was not taken into account.
Released in 2016 “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice“showed that DC Extended Universe huge problems. With a budget of 250 million, the film raised $ 873 million, but there were huge marketing expenses behind the scenes, which were estimated at another 150 million. Guide Warner Bros. hoped to collect at least a billion, but this did not happen.
Reviews are also not pleased. The creators managed to merge the concept of confronting Man from steel and the Dark Knight, reducing it to a stupid brawl for a couple of minutes and an idiotic denouement. The tape had huge problems with the logic of confrontation, delusional references to the Bible (Jesus superman) already annoyed, casting (Jesse Eisenberg in the role Lex Luthor) raised questions.
The film was also overloaded with references to the movie universe, which only lost focus. The final chord was that for the sake of a cinema release, the studio management required to cut the tape, which only confused the audience. The directorial version, which was later released on physical media, improved the situation a bit, but the train had already left.
Yes, Henry Cavill Superman still looked great, Gal Gadot instilled in faith with a solo album about Wonder woman, and Ben Affleck became a decoration of the film – his image Batman It turned out great.
The problem was that somehow seriously correcting the situation at this stage was already impossible. But the studio still tried … and broke even more firewood. The first victim was a movie released in 2016 David Eyre “Suicide Squad.” During production, a command was given to adjust the course and make the tape more fun, alleviating the oppressive gloom of Snyder’s style.
The final version of the film was disfigured at the montage, and this is clearly visible. Important pieces of the plot went to the scrap, arch Jokers and Harley quinn, because of which the narrative suffers. The result – with a budget of 175 million (excluding marketing), the tape raised 746 million.
And here we come to the Justice League and why the promised HBOX Max version from Snyder is not what everyone thinks. The answer is simple: the director’s original idea died at the stage of filming the first version. Initially, Snyder planned to split the film into two parts, but because of the panic in the leadership of Warner Bros. the plan was hacked, and it was decided to limit itself to one film.
The first version of Snyder’s film was rejected as inconspicuous, the director began to cut his authority, he was actively pressured, trying to make the film less gloomy. This is evident in the first teaser, in which the heroes are actively joking. This was followed by large-scale shootings, which only inflated the budget to indecent sizes, and the amount of material available was about five hours.
What all this led to, we know. In March 2017, Zach Snyder’s daughter committed [Роскомнадзор]that broke the back of the director, who was already in a stressful situation. He left the project, relieving himself of the authority of a film universe architect. DC Extended Universe Appointed Jeff Jones and John Berg, and put in the director’s chair Joss Whedonwho was responsible for “Avengers“At first, the Warner leadership. Bros hypocritically declared that Whedon was following Snyder’s course, but in reality, Frankenstein’s monster was waiting for the audience: about 15% of the original work.
According to Snyder’s plan, after Superman’s death, Lord Apocalypse Darkside begins the invasion of Earth. In addition, a huge number of different cameos were planned (for example, Lieutenant General Calvin Swanwick was a Martian Hunter). But ideas were thrown aside, and the central villain was Steppenwulf, which at the same time changed the design to a more miserable one.
The situation was aggravated by the fact that Whedon was to fit into an extremely tight schedule. This greatly affected the final quality. Special effects were affected, and the decision to change the muffled “snider-light” to a brighter finished off the tape. Yes, everyone knows about the “mustache of Cavill”, but do not forget that the final battle was to take place in the dark, and not against the background of an acid-red-orange haze.
In addition to Superman with a painted mouth, Batman had problems. During the shootings, Affleck gained weight, but the tragedy lies in the fact that his costume is not suitable for display in bright times of the day. Instead of a menacing shadow, the audience is shown an absurd puff, which looks as comical as possible.
Scenes from Cyborg thrown into the scrap, there were followed by scenes with Flash. The total timing of the tape was only 120 minutes, which was clearly not enough. The army could not be saved by an army of several scriptwriters who tried to sew the achievements of different directors into a single whole with white threads. The result – with an astronomical budget in the region of 300 million dollars (excluding marketing costs), he collected only 657 million.
“Justice League” marked the end of plans for the cinematic universe in its original sense. All subsequent films are relatively arbitrary and prefer to focus on their stories. A great example is the movie “Joker” Todd Phillipswhich is not part of the DC Extended Universe at all.
The main “scapegoats” were Jones and Berg, who acted as crisis managers and took the brunt of. Projects they started (“Aquaman“and”Shazam“) came out under the supervision of the head of Warner Bros. Kevin Tsujiharawho appropriated the laurels to himself. However, he did not stay afloat: in March 2019, the top manager left the studio due to another sex scandal.
So what will await us? HBO Max is ready to allocate $ 20-30 million to Snyder to complete the project. At the same time, the director himself does not yet know what awaits us in 2023. He himself admitted that we are talking about a completely new version, based on existing material. According to preliminary data, we are talking about a series of four to six episodes.
Is it possible to say that Warner Bros. decided to bring back the original vision of Zach Snyder? No, I just need HBO Max. “Mandaloretz“(a flagship project that will attract an audience), and they decided to choose the Justice League for its role. The platform’s management acts independently of Warner Bros., then the new heads of the film studio have different priorities. Now DC Extended Universe can be called a cinema universe conditionally: it’s very It’s fragmentary, and each film is self-sufficient, and there are persistent rumors of a soft restart, as already seen in the sequel to Wonder Woman and the Birds of Prey.
Also questionable is the status of Henry Cavill as Superman. The filming of the new man from steel is not reported, although the program originally included a film about the Krypton. At the same time, a rumor was circulating that they would get rid of Cavill, replacing him with a black actor. For example, on Michael B. Jordan. However, the reverse insider is circulating: Cavill remains and will receive a new film.
It is also possible that Snyder’s Justice League will turn out to be a bad movie. As history has shown “Fantastic Four“, sometimes shifting the blame from the director to the studio’s management turns out to be premature (we keep in mind the allegations that his version was not watchable).
That is why Snyder cut will become a kind of funeral DC Extended Universe version 1.0. The Justice League will forever remain an example of the incompetence of Hollywood leaders who want money faster and more. But she is also an example of the unity of movie and comic book fans who are ready to insist on and prove the value of an interesting project to them through their own advertising campaign (with the purchase of billboards on the streets). And this is very pleasing, given that in recent years there has been a trend towards demonizing fans and exponentially ignoring their opinions. Now fans have a new goal – to release the directorial version of “Suicide Squad” from David Eyre (it also exists).
However, it cannot be said that WarnerBros. learns from his mistakes. Cinema Universe Problems Prove It Harry potterwhen not able to write scripts J.K. Rowling appointed a screenwriter with all the ensuing consequences.
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