Someone else close to the production of Justice League has now entered the debate over the fabled Snyder Cut, casting doubt over the possibility of Warner Brothers releasing it.
DCEU and Justice League photographer Clay Enos, a friend and frequent collaborator of director Zack Snyder, recently discussed the film on the Comicbook Debate podcast, and had some choice words detailing what Warner Brothers would have to do to get a Snyder Cut out to the public.
Here’s what he had to say:
“Is it a theatrical release and then what does that mean for royalty checks for the hundred or two hundred actors who participated in it,” Enos said. “Like it is just a complete mess on so many fronts. Does it get a different IMDB ya know, because each of those things, the credits become huge consequences financially and so it, my observation is that this business makes anything like that incredibly unlikely and kind of complicated.
That said, if there’s a sufficient box office allure they’ll figure it out. I mean there’s probably something pretty close to ready out there that throw in another $20 or $30 million in there and you could maybe see hundreds come from it. It’s a hard one, but consider that it isn’t just like ‘ah hey, just throw it on YouTube.’ There are some massive financial consequence to doing something like that and it sours my optimism, though I do remain optimistic. Like I would love for something like that to happen or exist.”
While he cites these sorts of legal bars and financial obligations as disparaging to the Snyder Cut, Enos remains a supporter of the Snyder Cut hashtag and likes the idea behind it.
For those who don’t know, the photographer has worked with Snyder on several films, including Watchmen, Man of Steel, and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, and seems confident in the 53-year-old director’s ability to convey his own meanings, when they’re left undisturbed.
During the podcast, he said the following:
“We need to prioritize the sort of auteur filmmaker world and that hasn’t been of late so all of us need to support films that have the auteur’s mark on them and not say giant studio support or whatever, and that’s today. And that’s not to say that those, that they don’t make bad ones, but let’s move gradually towards a world where the bottom line and the box office isn’t the headline.”
With or without DC interference, there’s no telling whether or not people would’ve liked Justice League had Snyder had complete creative control. But with such towering financial and legal obstacles in the way of ever seeing his cut of it, it unfortunately doesn’t look like we’ll get the chance to find out.