There’s a big shake-up afoot at the semi-newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery. Details have yet to be made public, but the rumor is that new CEO David Zaslav is planning on dramatically altering their popular streamer HBO Max, gutting the scripted division and jettisoning some of its vast and diverse shows and movies. (Already subscribers can no longer watch An American Pickle.) But the changes may go even deeper still.
In a Rolling Stone piece about the shocking, unprecedented shelving of Batgirl and Scoob!: Haunted Holiday, there’s one alarming aside (caught by Discussing Film) about one of the more high-profile HBO Max releases: the fabled “Snyder Cut” of Justice League. The company forked over a small fortune so that Zack Snyder, who left the 2017 all-star DCEU film while it was still in production due to family issues, could rehab a version of his original, ambitious vision. Thing is, apparently company brass are trying to pretend it doesn’t exist:
In a telling sign of how far the studio is looking to distance itself from Snyder, a source says documentary filmmaker Leslie Iwerks recently asked to license clips from the 2021 Justice League for a film on the history of DC and was told there is only one Justice League: the 2017 incarnation.
Whereas the “Snyder cut” received strong reviews, the suspiciously short 2017 version that hit theaters did not, leading to an underwhelming box office haul. Will Snyder’s four-hour version last much longer on the platform? Will the rumors prove true and a “Red Wedding”-level streaming bloodbath is near? Who’s to say? Perhaps the company is just peeved that so many of those calling for a new, pricey version of a movie that didn’t make much money anyway were reportedly Twitter bots.
(Via Rolling Stone)
