The Snyder Cut acolytes have had a few good weeks, namely by almost breaking the Internet on the two-year anniversary of Justice League. The momentum of #ReleaseTheSnyderCut reached an all-time zenith with the faithful clamoring for what they believe is the movie we never received.
Everyone involved with “Josstice League.” tweeted their support, including most of the cast of the beleaguered DC Comics and Warner Bros. product. Batfleck to Gal Gadot, Aquaman to Ray Fisher to even Zack Snyder himself extolled the greatness of whatever was left on the showroom floor.
Well, all except for Danny Elfman, the distinguished composer of Batman (1989), the Sony Spider-Man trilogy, and the entire Men in Black franchise.
Elfman, 66, was brought in to replace Junkie XL on the film score, considering Warner Bros. commissioned an extra 80 pages of script when Zack Snyder was unceremoniously booted out of the movie…eh, left to be with his family.
Elfman was recently a guest on “The Big Reviewski” podcast, where the obligatory question of the enigmatic Snyder Cut entered the conversation.
And, ‘Spoiler Alert’ for the Walking Dead out there: You’re not going to like this.
“Well, the thing is, he never finished it,” Elfman said of Snyder.
Yeah, that’s gotta sting a little. There’s more…
“So, I don’t know quite how they’d do [a Snyder cut]. He had a tremendous tragedy, which forced him to not finish the film. I don’t quite understand this, because it wasn’t like he was fired, and that there is a Director’s Cut that is a finished movie and that the studio fired him and then hired Joss.”
So, there’s that.
A “Director’s Cut” involves a fully baked version of a movie involving extra scenes that were cut from the theatrical version. Some production houses release a Director’s Cut because fans demand it. Mostly others do it for the money (and yes, Marvel, we’re talking to you as well).
Elfman recalls when Joss Whedon was given control of the project following Zack Snyder’s personal tragedy. His recollection is telling, to say the least:
“When Joss came on the film, he stepped in with only a few days notice, to pick up the helm because of this terrible, terrible tragedy that happened,” Elfman continued. “So it is kind of a unique situation.
I mean, there is definitely other movies where the director was fired, and a studio radically changed the movie because they didn’t like it. And as a fan, you go ‘I wonder what the director did, before the studio changed the movie.’ But I’m not really aware of how that dynamic would really apply here.”
And, there’s that too.
Warner Bros. had to find a replacement for Justice League. The emsemble cast demanded to have someone at the helm of this movie, but no one knew it was going to be a completely different film. Ostensibly, that is the rub.
Fans think it. The cast believes it. But Elfman refutes it.
If you are on one side of this fence or the other, we already know what you think. There are feelings backed with vitriol and fueled angst.
There are also the pragmatic types who examine the facts and draw opinion. This is where Elfman lives and why believes what he does.
I suppose the question is this: Do you want an unfinished version of what could be to keep your hopes up or a published version of what is and move on?
Yeah, we may never know.
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