The 2016 released anti-hero team-up film, ‘Suicide Squad’, was globally panned despite its massive box office success and multistar cast. Many felt that the movie was clunky, badly edited and had a generic plot that didn’t amount to anything by the end of the movie. The cast and crew were disappointed – but not at the fans, however, rather at the production company, Warner Bros. Pictures. The studio had made massive changes to the 2016 film, after Zac Snyder’s ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ was slammed by critics for its dark tone. After multiple weeks of extensive reshoots, an additional USD 22 million for production and a new script, the new cut was almost unrecognisable from David Ayer’s original. After Zac Snyder managed to get his version of ‘Justice League’ released last year, David Ayer and die-hard fans have been trying their hardest to get an Ayer-Cut version in production as well. Here are three reasons that the Ayer Cut will not see the light of day (at least, for the next five-to-seven years):
The Suicide Squad
The James Gunn directed sequel/reboot has helped pick the DCEU up and this superhero universe is on the mend. Bringing back the Ayer-Cut would mean that ‘The Suicide Squad’ will not be canon anymore. The DC Universe doesn’t need any unnecessary complications at the moment.
Money
While we are sure that the Ayer-Cut will not need as much money for post-production as Zac Snyder needed for his 4-hour-plus epic, it will still need a few tend of thousands of dollars – which WB can spend elsewhere. Also, we expect the film to need a few additional shooting sessions as well, which means that it will need more time. Not looking good for David Ayer.
Undermining WB
While ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ was slammed by critics for its dark tone, Jos Whedon’s ‘Justice League’ got a lot more flak for its forced humour. After Zac Snyder’s version was released, even critics agreed that the darker tones matched the overall tone of the film. WB has been getting attacked on social media for a lot of reasons already – for the mishandling/rushing of DC Extended Universe, Johnny Depp’s removal as Grindelwald from the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ series, etc. If the Ayer-Cut version of the film is approved, it will be a lose-lose situation for Warner Bros (if the film does well, WB’s previous decision will have been wrong; if it doesn’t do well, this venture will have been a waste of time and money).
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