The Justice League Snyder Cut is, amazingly, actually happening on HBO Max in 2021, finally realizing the version of the movie that original director Zack Snyder had planned before he stepped away from the film following a family tragedy. The final version, directed in part by Joss Whedon, didn’t follow Snyder’s exact script–and finishing it will reportedly cost a lot of money.
On the most recent episode of Vox’s Recode Media podcast (as picked up by Screenrant), Bob Greenblatt of WarnerMedia and HBO Max has opened up about the cost of the project. The original figure bandied about in many reports suggested that this cut would cost $20-30 million to put together; in truth, the number is likely to be much higher.
“It isn’t as easy as going into the vault and there’s a Snyder Cut sitting there to put out,” Greenblatt said, explaining that there would be “new effects shots” and rebuilt scenes. “It’s a radical rethinking of that movie and it’s complicated and wildly expensive,” he continued, although he could not give an exact figure. “I’ll just say I wish it was $30 million and stop there.”
At release, Justice League was the lowest-grossing DC film, and it remains the third-lowest now ahead of Shazam and Birds of Prey–although it sported a significantly higher budget than either of those films–it’s estimated to have cost $300 million.
The next DC film will be Wonder Woman 1984, which is technically a prequel to Justice League. It will release on August 14, 2020.
