Following all the hype surrounding the success for the Snyder Cut of Justice League, fans have turned their attentions to the next big DC project which was mired with controversy: David Ayer’s Suicide Squad. While the director has already responded saying that any recut is ultimately not his decision to make and is unlikely to happen, he posted a few more details to fans on Twitter about the fact that there is an existence of a better cut – in his opinion – before the movie was changed and chopped by the studio.
It has been widely reported before that David Ayer had initially gone for a far darker tone to the film, more in line with Zack Snyder’s approach to his DC film, before Warner Bros. felt that the movie needed some lighter moments and more humour, more in line with the Marvel approach. Needless to say, the scenes added in reshoots and significant edits to make the movie flow differently and ruined a lot of what Ayer was aiming for. Though it appears he wouldn’t mind somehow seeing that version of the film if he ever got the chance:
According to Ayer, if the studio ever did decide to allow him to do his version of the film, all the footage already exists for it. Its just a matter of touching up some of the visual effects in postproduction to bring many of those cut scenes up to release quality. Considering how late the studio’s change in tonal direction for the film was made, it’s not surprising to know that Ayer had filmed pretty much all of his content.
What is perhaps more surprising is Ayer’s willingness to probably work with Warner Bros. again after all the issues he seemed to have around the direction of Suicide Squad. Not only did the studio make significant changes to his story and change the tone in the end, but they had also cut the scenes for the character that had received most of the publicity during filming, that of Jared Leto’s Joker. In another tweet, Ayer revealed that in his many battles with the studio, the only one he actually end up winning was the backstory around the character of Diablo.
Could we ever get to see Ayer’s original version of the film? I still think it’s unlikely, given the toxic relationship between the two, but at least it wouldn’t require as Snyder’s Justice League if that does indeed turn out to be a success. In Hollywood, money speaks. I’m not a big fan of Suicide Squad and I’m not sure a director’s cut will save it, but I guess a director at least should get the chance to present their vision for a film to audiences and fans.
Last Updated: May 26, 2020
Caveshen Rajman
May 26, 2020 at 09:45
I mean, the edit was the worst part of this movie. So, it does make sense that an Ayer Cut so to speak, could improve on the original. I’d be down.
Kervyn Cloete
May 26, 2020 at 11:09
Whoever cut that GOTG-inspired Comic-Con trailer for this movie totally screwed Ayer over. The moment the fans went crazy for that trailer, WB were all over him to make his move look like that even though he had this whole gritty approach planned.
Hammersteyn
May 26, 2020 at 10:55
His name is Slipknot, a man that can climb anything….
Refund please!