This year, Zack Snyder fans are getting their long-promised “Snyder Cut” of Justice League, thanks to Warner Bros.’ big HBO Max push. This has opened Pandora’s box in the sense that other filmmakers and their fans are now campaigning for studios to release alternate cuts/edits of their favorite films.
The complexities of making studio movies and the politics behind them cannot be understated – what ends up on screen is rarely the complete vision of the filmmaker. With that, the idea of allowing filmmakers to “re-open” their projects and tinker with them is an interesting proposition, even if George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have both proved this isn’t always in the best interest of the final product. Putting the debates aside, this isn’t a new concept (Warners allowed Mike Flanagan to release his extended cut of Doctor Sleep just a couple years back) and will continue to happen from time to time over the years.
One of the more interesting proposals is an alternate edit of David Ayer‘s troubled Suicide Squad, which was completely ripped apart and re-assembled in order to squeeze in more footage of DC’s insanely popular Harley Quinn, which caught the studio brass by surprise.
Because of this, there are a ton of alternate takes, edits, cuts, assemblies, etc of the film, especially footage of Margot Robbie‘s Harley Quinn and Jared Leto‘s underappreciated performance as Joker.
The teasing of the “Ayer Cut” is now officially underway, as Ayer just shared a brand new look at Leto as the Joker with his face burned from a helicopter crash. Check it out below…
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” exclaims Joker.
Um…@DavidAyerMovies just dropped a CLIP FROM HIS DIRECTOR’S CUT!! #ReleaseTheAyerCut #IStandWithRayFisher pic.twitter.com/nSEp6O9KKH
— ReleaseTheAyerCut (@RTAyerCutSS) January 16, 2021