I’ve been waiting for The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Deadline, or The Wrap to weigh in on all of the behind-the-scenes drama surrounding Justice League, and today, The Wrap delivered.
As you know, Justice League went through a lot of changes after the backlash that Batman v Superman received. Production was scheduled to begin in April 2016, just a few weeks after Batman v Superman. The Wrap says that several Warner Bros. executives went to (then) President Greg Silverman, asking him to remove director Zack Snyder from Justice League. Silverman was “quite harsh on Zack”, but production was too far along and they were about to start rolling. The decision to keep Snyder on Justice League ultimately came from Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara. DC Films President Jon Berg was sent to London to oversee the movie’s production.
Earlier this year, Joss Whedon was brought on to Justice League to make the movie lighter and more fun. It’s also around the time when Snyder’s daughter died by suicide. Despite the terrible tragedy, Snyder tried to bury his head in his work, but ended up stepping down as director. The added pressure from Warner Bros. to change his movie couldn’t have come at a worst time. “It stopped being a good situation on any level,” The Wrap’s source said.
And then there were the reshoots, which included many new scenes of Henry Cavill’s Superman. But there was one problem. Cavill had a mustache for Mission Impossible 6, which he was shooting at the same time, and contractually couldn’t shave it. Warner Bros. would have to digitally remove it, and the November 17th release date was just a few months away. Delaying the movie was probably the best decision, but here’s where it gets ugly…
AT&T and Time Warner are currently in the middle of a $85 billion dollar deal that they were hoping would close by the end of the year. One source told The Wrap that WB CEO Kevin Tsujihara and President Toby Emmerich “wanted to preserve their bonuses they would be paid before the merger,” and were worried that “if they pushed the movie, then their bonuses would have been pushed to the following year and they might not still be at the studio.”
My takeaway here is that Justice League is the result of Batman v Superman backlash, too many cooks in the kitchen, and corporate greed. Let me know what you think in the comments below, and check out the full story at The Wrap for more.
SOURCE: The Wrap
