Ridley Scott appeared to have the market cornered for a while, but based on recent history, you could arguably anoint Zack Snyder as the reigning ruler of the Director’s Cut.
The filmmaker has released extended editions of several entries in his back catalogue, ranging from an even gorier version of Dawn of the Dead right through to his four-hour spin on Justice League, with the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition and two lengthier iterations of Watchmen sandwiched in between.
Thanks to the creative freedom afforded by Netflix, two-part sci-fi epic Rebel Moon is getting a pair of Snyder Cuts that will up the ante in terms of violence and visceral impact, with the filmmaker offering a fair explanation as to why he’s decided to walk that road again while speaking at Gamescon.
“I can’t help myself. The hope is for it to come out down the road. It was cool because I think the one thing with Netflix was coming off Justice League, and look, I’ve done since Dawn of the Dead, I did a Director’s Cut for Dawn... Watchmen. I have two, there’s two Director’s Cuts, which is crazy.
Yeah, BvS, of course, is one of my favorites, of course. And Justice League, that goes without saying. And so, it was just cool in the initial conversation I was having with Netflix about just this concept of them saying like, ‘Oh, well, why don’t we make it part of the plan?’ That makes it a lot easier. There’s a great history of director’s cuts that are just cool.”
Once Part One – A Child of Fire and The Scargiver have been released and inevitably become two of Netflix’s biggest-ever hits, then it’ll be time to strap in for what Snyder teases as “a six-hour sitting” of Rebel Moon.