Years ago, a huge campaign run by some crazy DCEU fans gained momentum when they discovered that Zack Snyder had his own cut of the Justice League. Snyder, who was the original director previously, quit the project after the tragic loss of his daughter by suicide and reported increasing pressure from WB to deliver the movie they wanted. The film was handed over to Joss Whedon who reshot near about 75% of it according to his own liking and delivered a rather sunnier take on the DC Comics universe.
However, history has been created almost four years later as the fan campaign to see Zack’s take has become successful. The four-hour Snyder cut has hit HBO Max and driven the fans crazy.
In a very recent interview with BuzzFeed, Zack Snyder spoke about what it was like for him to get back on an unfinished business
Here are some excerpts from the interview:
Zack is super excited for fans to see the journey of Cyborg
Zack cited that Cyborg is the most essential character of the movie. Back in the days when he was working on the script with Chris Terrio, the duo decided that the film would essentially be Cyborg’s story.
He has put a bunch of easter eggs for fans to find
Talking about how his interest in easter eggs, Snyder tells his fans that there would be multiple ‘who was that’ and ‘what was that about’ moments in the film as it has been topped up with a good amount of easter eggs.
Fans reached out to him after the movie was accidentally leaked on HBO Max
Zack told that following the accidental leak of Justice League on HBO Max, he received a lot of DMs from his fan who were extending their help in stopping the leak. He was awed with their heartfelt gesture.
Zack saw the “We live in a society” memes based on the trailer, and he was into them.
Zack Snyder making Joker say we live in a society pic.twitter.com/bZkjqY4X3V
— Dr Jake Fishbowl ✨ (@_shannon93) February 14, 2021
“I thought it was cool. Listen, I think the ‘We live in a society’ memes are 100% on point for where we are.”
Zack claims to have never seen the theatrical release of the Justice League
Talking about how oblivious he has been about the original Justice League, Zack admits that he has never seen the theatrical release. During multiple fan interactions, he has been asked about the inclusions of various different scenes from the previous part in his version. He says that he’s mostly clueless about what the fans are talking about.
He feels 4 hours were essential to tell the story completely
Zack says that his version of the film is a real deep dive into each of the characters. He’s hoping that the fans would get to learn a lot about their favorite Justice League characters. According to Zack, the story was crammed into 2 hours but his version promises a great 4-hour experience.
The American football scenes were actually shot in England
Zack says he really enjoyed filming the American football scene with Ray Fisher and his son Eli on the English grounds. All were English football players who played American football wholeheartedly. “They were so into wearing the jerseys of Wisconsin, these college football teams. It was really fun, that part was really a great experience” says Zack.
Visual effects of Steppenwolf were the hardest to pull off
The most complex and challenging issue that Snyder and his team had to deal with was the visual effects of Steppenwolf. Snyder hailed Ciarán Hinds as a genius for his amazing dub voice, and for adding life to Steppenwolf’s character.
Jason Momoa’s hair was in a hairnet while filming in the underwater scenes
“We did a lot of R&D. What we were developing at the time, then informed James [Wan], and how he would make the underwater [effects in Aquaman] — they evolved it, of course, but we were cutting our teeth. We had this robotic arm and this other weird rig, they could control Jason swimming — twist him and turn his body, so he could swim. We would put his hair in a hairnet and put markers on his head, so his hair could move afterwards.”
The only DCEU souvenir which Zack owns is a huge picture of Wonder Woman in his office
Here is a clear look at the pic shown during Zack’s interview today, it was used as a placeholder in BVS and was taken before Patty was hired and took on Wonder Woman’s origin Story.
Thanks boss @ZackSnyder for letting us share this.#UsUnited #ZackSnydersJusticeLeague pic.twitter.com/qeBFCev9MT
— ????????NQ Cole & Nana ???????? (@TheNerdQueens) January 4, 2021
Claiming that he gave a lot of memorabilia away, Zack says that it’s only this picture of Wonder Woman from Batman v Superman from her times in the Crimean War that he owns. He has placed a gigantic version of it on one of his office walls.
Zack’s incredibly grateful for his fans who have raised money such as $500,000 for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
Tonight I’m joining Uche Nwaneri @chukwu77 to raise suicide prevention awareness through @afspnational. As we celebrate the #SnyderCut never forget the daily struggle of mental health for many people around the world. Show starts at 5pm PDT. #ForAutumn https://t.co/urjRczbcao
— Zack Snyder (@ZackSnyder) March 17, 2021
“The thing I’m most proud of with the movie is the money that fans raised for suicide prevention and mental health awareness — because that is really important to me, and really important to my family. This impossible, incredible fandom was able to take their love of a movie and really turn it into a life-saving effort that’s transcended the film, transcended all of us as individuals, and turned us into this community that’s outreach has really done a lot of good. If there was no movie, and that was all that happened, that would be enough.”
Zack proposed the idea of shooting the scenes between Batman and Joker in his backyard
Because the studio didn’t initially permit him to shoot the scene, Zack made up his mind to film Jared and Ben in his backyard. “Thanks to Warner Brothers and HBO Max, they allowed me to shoot it at a soundstage for real. But for sure, there was a minute there where I wanted to just go rogue.”
Zack thinks that HBO Max was the perfect platform for the Snyder cut, but he’s excited for its theatrical release too
“I think that HBO Max is the perfect way to watch the movie, it’s the perfect way to experience it. The movie is chaptered, so it’s easy to stop if you want to go to the bathroom or get a snack. It works out quite nicely in this format, in a comfy sofa as opposed to creaky chair. But I hope at some point in the not too distant future, I’m able to release a movie in the cinemas.”
Zack Snyder’s Justice League is available to stream on HBO Max.
