Director Zack Snyder Wants To Fix His Most Controversial Movie
You know that famous quote commonly attributed to Alexander the Great (mostly thanks to a certain Hans Gruber monologue in "Die Hard," of course) about how he wept when there were no more worlds to conquer? We're starting to think that Zack Snyder feels much the same way, except that his version of conquering the world is more about finding ways to re-release his movies with extra footage attached at all costs.
To be fair, this isn't exactly a new phenomenon for Snyder. His 2004 "Dawn of the Dead" reboot eventually led to an unrated cut down the line and his comic book movie "Watchmen" ended up with several different versions post-release. He pulled the same trick once again with both "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" and, most infamously, his "Zack Snyder's Justice League" experiment that resulted in a completely different movie altogether compared to the theatrical cut. He's planning on returning to the exact same well with his two-part "Rebel Moon" epic (as we exclusively reported here), but why stop there?
In a new interview with Empire, the divisive director once again threatened promised to return to the scene of a particularly controversial crime: 2011's "Sucker Punch." He's previously mentioned that another version exists that's different from the R-rated one that already came with the film's home media release, but now he's opening up even more on just how many changes this unreleased cut would make. According to Snyder:
"The only movie I would change is 'Sucker Punch,' because it never really got finished correctly. Even the director's cut is not really the correct cut. It's really just an extended version. If I had the chance, I would fix that movie."
#ReleaseTheSuckerPunchCut?
Zack Snyder's silence on a possible "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole" extended cut is deafening, folks.
In all seriousness, it sure seems like the filmmaker intends on taking advantage of his, uh, passionate fanbase and willing multiple cuts of his movies into existence. The next item on the agenda is "Sucker Punch," the over-the-top power fantasy starring Emily Browning, Jena Malone, Abbie Cornish, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, and Carla Gugino as (spoiler alert) inmates at a mental asylum who escape the daily horror of their lives by imagining a steampunk fantasy world where they get to dress skimpily and blow robots up and stuff. (There was also a young Oscar Isaac with a mustache, importantly enough.)
Snyder's approach to such provocative material didn't really go over well with critics or even most audiences at the time, probably because of its, well, extremely stereotypical male take on female empowerment. Despite the not-so-final product acquiring some diehard fans over the years, I'm curious if Snyder all but disavowing the original cut(s) will go over well with his online supporters. Then again, the same fans once defended the theatrical cut of "Batman v Superman" upon release before completely turning a 180 on it once they found out about his "Ultimate Cut," so who knows?
Regarding his unreleased "Sucker Punch" footage, Snyder goes on to say in the Empire interview:
"I have the footage already shot: they just have to let me put it together. We ask every now and then. We have to ask again. I think there has to be a window when no-one's got [the rights to] the movie."
Start your online slogan campaigns now, I suppose. Hopefully, this version has 100% more mustachioed Oscar Isaac.