Zack Snyder became the center of a movement when his version of Justice League was finally released on HBO Max as Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The four-hour epic was a rework of the 2017 team-up film which he worked on and quit midway to deal with his daughter’s death by s*icide. The re-cut reportedly cost the studio $70 million.
However, the four-hour superhero drama’s $70 million budget did not include Zack Snyder’s salary for the film. He was reportedly not paid for his involvement, which he eventually used as leverage to retain creative control. However, before the Snyder Cut was decided to be released, the filmmaker reportedly had another tiring conversation with WB executives.
Zack Snyder was not paid a single dollar for Zack Snyder’s Justice League
Zack Snyder’s tenure as the director of Justice League is one for the books. He was hired as the architect of the DCEU back in the 2010s with Man of Steel but audience and critic reactions to the darker (and commercially underperforming) films led studio executives to keep him under supervision while the epic team-up film was being made.
However, midway through the film, Snyder and his wife and producer Deborah Snyder left the film to deal with the death of their daughter Autumn, who died by s*icide. Joss Whedon was brought in to take over, rewrite, and reshoot the film although Snyder retained director credit. The result was a tonally bipolar film that ended up being a box office bomb.
As the ‘Release the Snyder Cut’ movement became more aggressive and far-reaching, WB announced that the reworked version would be released as an HBO Max event, with Zack Snyder working on a four-hour edit.
However, the filmmaker reportedly did not get any money for his involvement. He told Vanity Fair,
I’m not getting paid. I didn’t want to be beholden to anyone, and it allowed me to keep my negotiating powers with these people pretty strong.
The revisions, which included reshoots and work on VFX, reportedly cost the studio an additional $70 million. However, there were many advantages to shelling out so much money for the studio, as Snyder detailed to them in a meeting.
Zack Snyder argued with WB executives who just wanted him to upload a rough cut
Before Zack Snyder left 2017’s Justice League to deal with the death in the family, the filmmaker reportedly took home the laptop and hard drive which had the rough cut of his edit. He reportedly planned on showing it to his friends who dropped by. He also began releasing some images to fan the flame of the ‘Release the Snyder Cut’ movement.
When WB finally decided to curb the movement by giving the fans what they wanted, they initially told Snyder to just hand over the rough cut. However, Zack Snyder was reportedly against that. He said,
I was like, ‘That’s a no, that’s a hard no’. And they’re like, ‘But why? You can just put up the rough cut’. I go, ‘Here’s why. Three reasons: One, you get the internet off your back, which is probably your main reason for wanting to do this. Two, you get to feel vindicated for making things right, I guess, on some level. And then three, you get a s*itty version of the movie that you can point at and go, ‘See? It’s not that good anyway. So maybe I was right.’
There were significant changes from Joss Whedon’s theatrically released film to Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which included an increased runtime, chapter-wise division of the film, extended scenes with Barry Allen, a new epilogue, and better (much better) VFX.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League is available to stream on Max.
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