{"id":137,"date":"2021-03-31T14:24:41","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T18:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/?p=137"},"modified":"2021-04-06T10:15:32","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T14:15:32","slug":"long-awaited-snyder-cut-of-justice-league-is-finally-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/2021\/03\/31\/long-awaited-snyder-cut-of-justice-league-is-finally-released\/","title":{"rendered":"Long awaited Snyder cut of Justice League is finally released"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2021\/03\/VF1321_Snyder_OPENER-1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-158\" width=\"848\" height=\"565\" srcset=\"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2021\/03\/VF1321_Snyder_OPENER-1-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2021\/03\/VF1321_Snyder_OPENER-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2021\/03\/VF1321_Snyder_OPENER-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2021\/03\/VF1321_Snyder_OPENER-1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/120\/2021\/03\/VF1321_Snyder_OPENER-1.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 848px) 100vw, 848px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:10px\">Zack Snyder and Jason Momoa on the set of <em>Justice League<\/em> (Source: Vanity Fair)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Story by Dayna Smockum<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On&nbsp;March 18, Warner Bros. released the Zach Snyder-led version of their 2017 superhero film,&nbsp;<em>Justice League,&nbsp;<\/em>on HBO Max. The new cut,&nbsp;totalling&nbsp;over four hours, comes after years of fans petitioning the production company to release the original director\u2019s version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE SNYDER CUT Trailer (2021)\" width=\"740\" height=\"416\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0QmSF7WUyN0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:10px\">Trailer for Snyder&#8217;s cut of <em>Justice League<\/em> (Source: Youtube)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size\">Snyder, known for his work on&nbsp;<em>300<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>Man of Steel<\/em>, was originally tapped to direct the film. But even before filming started in 2016, Snyder found himself battling with Warner Bros., who wanted a shorter, lighter film to rival Marvel\u2019s mega-successful&nbsp;<em>Avengers<\/em>. \u201cHow am I supposed to introduce six characters and an alien with potential for world domination in two hours?\u201d Snyder told&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/2021\/02\/the-true-story-of-justice-league-snyder-cut\"><em><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">Vanity Fair<\/span><\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Snyder is known for his darker, edgier depiction of well-loved comic book heroes. But after Snyder\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice<\/em>&nbsp;was&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2021\/03\/26\/success-snyder-cut-shows-nice-guys-can-finish-first-that-we-want-them\/\"><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">panned<\/span><\/a>&nbsp;by critics and fans, Warner Bros. lost their confidence in the director. They installed two men to \u201cbabysit\u201d him on set, Snyder described to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/2021\/02\/the-true-story-of-justice-league-snyder-cut\"><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\"><em>Vanity Fair<\/em><\/span><\/a><em><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">,<\/span><\/em>&nbsp;and denied the director\u2019s more&nbsp;controversial&nbsp;storylines, such as a romance between Bruce Wayne and Lois Lane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignright is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/RestoreTheSnyderVerse?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#RestoreTheSnyderVerse<\/a> is trending worldwide with over 1M tweets after the success of <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ZackSnydersJusticeLeague<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TS2KO27It4\">pic.twitter.com\/TS2KO27It4<\/a><\/p>&mdash; DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DiscussingFilm\/status\/1375241577174601729?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 26, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A year into production, Warner Bros. brought in a second director to the film, Joss Whedon, who had worked on Marvel films. Snyder was at first open to working with the director; \u201cI thought [it] would be fun,\u201d he told&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/2021\/02\/the-true-story-of-justice-league-snyder-cut\"><em><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">Vanity Fair<\/span><\/em><\/a>. But it quickly became clear to Snyder that Warner Bros. was intent on replacing him with Whedon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was in that moment that tragedy struck. In March 2017, Snyder\u2019s 20-year-old daughter lost her battle with&nbsp;Depression&nbsp;and took her own life. At first Snyder and his producing partner and wife Deborah tried to throw themselves into the film to manage their grief. But as disagreements with Warner Bros continued to mount, they instead chose to leave the film. \u201cWe just lost the will to fight that fight in a lot of ways,\u201d Snyder told&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/2021\/02\/the-true-story-of-justice-league-snyder-cut\"><em><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">Vanity Fair<\/span><\/em><\/a><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whedon took hold of the project, rewriting and reshooting<span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2021\/03\/26\/success-snyder-cut-shows-nice-guys-can-finish-first-that-we-want-them\/\"><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">three quarters<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">&nbsp;<\/span>of the film, Snyder estimated. When&nbsp;<em>Justice League<\/em>&nbsp;finally arrived at the box office in the fall of 2017, it<span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/pop-culture\/movies\/how-unprecedented-fan-campaign-powered-zack-snyder-s-cut-justice-n1261216\"><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">bombed<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.knightlab.com\/libs\/timeline3\/latest\/embed\/index.html?source=13kOkHd32X39Cpx03nsIt4hJtOhY4lumCtM5_BvB-dRs&amp;font=Default&amp;lang=en&amp;initial_zoom=2&amp;height=650\" width=\"100%\" height=\"640\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"\" mozallowfullscreen=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:10px\">Multimedia by Annika Forman <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Almost immediately, fans took to social media to demand Snyder\u2019s version be released. They bought&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/2021\/02\/the-true-story-of-justice-league-snyder-cut\"><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">billboards<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">&nbsp;<\/span>and hired planes to fly banners over the Warner Bros studio lot. In the process of their campaign, fans raised <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/pop-culture\/movies\/how-unprecedented-fan-campaign-powered-zack-snyder-s-cut-justice-n1261216\"><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">half a million dollars<\/span><\/a>&nbsp; for the American Foundation for&nbsp;Suicide&nbsp;Prevention in honour of Snyder\u2019s late daughter, Autumn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In&nbsp;November&nbsp;2019, Snyder received a phone call from the studio asking if he would come back to finish his cut.&nbsp;Funnelling&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/2021\/02\/the-true-story-of-justice-league-snyder-cut\"><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">70 million<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">&nbsp;<\/span>extra dollars into editing and reshoots, Warner Bros. gave Snyder full creative control, in exchange for no&nbsp;additional <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/2021\/02\/the-true-story-of-justice-league-snyder-cut\"><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">salary<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Snyder cut of <em>Justice League<\/em> has been well received by fans.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rottentomatoes.com\/m\/zack_snyders_justice_league\"><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">Rotten Tomatoes<\/span><\/a>&nbsp;gave the film a 72 per cent, compared to the original\u2019s 40 per cent. But more important to Snyder than the film\u2019s reception, was the catharsis finishing the film brought him. His cut of&nbsp;<em>Justice League<\/em>&nbsp;concludes with a simple message, \u201cfor Autumn.\u201d The film is an ode to his daughter, whose creativity and love for all things&nbsp;superpowered&nbsp;inspired Snyder. \u201cWithout her, this absolutely would not have happened,\u201d the director told<span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/2021\/02\/the-true-story-of-justice-league-snyder-cut\"><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\"><em>Vanity Fair<\/em>.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Zack Snyder&#039;s Justice League Soundtrack | Hallelujah - Allison Crowe | WaterTower\" width=\"740\" height=\"416\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PUKoUaapK9A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:10px\">Appearing at the end of the film, Crowe&#8217;s version of the song is a tribute to Autumn Snyder (Source: Insider\/Youtube)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs help, resources are available. In case of an emergency, please call 911 for immediate help.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crisisservicescanada.ca\/en\/\"><strong><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\"><em>Crisis Services Canada<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/a><strong><em><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">\u2019s<\/span> toll-free helpline provides 24-7 support at 1-833-456-4566.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>The toll-free<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hopeforwellness.ca\/\">&nbsp;<strong><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\"><em>Hope for Wellness<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/a><strong><em><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">&nbsp;<\/span>helpline provides 24-7 support for Indigenous Peoples at 1-855-242-3310. Online chat services are also available.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.translifeline.org\/\"><strong><em><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">Trans Lifeline<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em>&nbsp;operates a toll-free peer support hotline for trans and questioning people at 1-877-330-6366.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>For a directory of support services in your area, visit the<\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/suicideprevention.ca\/Need-Help\"><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\">&nbsp;<strong><em>Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/a><strong><span style=\"color:#076790\" class=\"has-inline-color\"><em>.<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zack Snyder and Jason Momoa on the set of Justice League (Source: Vanity Fair) Story by Dayna Smockum On&nbsp;March 18, Warner Bros. released the Zach Snyder-led version of their 2017 superhero film,&nbsp;Justice League,&nbsp;on HBO Max. The new cut,&nbsp;totalling&nbsp;over four hours, comes after years of fans petitioning the production company to release the original director\u2019s version. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[61],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.journalism.torontomu.ca\/jn8201-winter-2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}