It is undeniable that director Zack Snyder has had a major impact on today’s film landscape and pop culture. With comic book adaptations such as Watchmen and 300, he has created formative works and paved the way for major franchises such as the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). While he looks back on most of the films with pride, there are one thing he would change.
Zack Snyder wanted to make a film much darker and more brutal – but the studio didn’t pay
After the Snyder Cut of Justice League, a new version of the Rebel Moon films will soon be released on Netflix. It seems to be slowly becoming a tradition that Zack Snyder’s films are re-edited by the director after their release. He often disagrees with the studios about how the films should have looked.
Several years before Justice League, Zack Snyder had a different version of his film in mind than the studio. It’s about the action film Sucker PunchIn it, the character Babydoll (Emily Browning) teams up with three other young women in a mental institution to escape.
Warner
sucker Punch
The film was released in the USA as PG-13 which in Germany is often comparable to FSK 12. Originally, however, the film was supposed to be much darker and given an R rating for adults. Zack and his wife Deborah Snyder explained this to Metro. They gave in to the studio’s wishes in order to be able to make the film at all:
I regret that we have rated the film for ages 13 and upbecause it was originally going to be rated 18. But we didn’t know how we were going to make it work budget-wise, and we knew they would give us more money if it was rated 13.
Both regret that they didn’t find a way to make the film on a smaller budget to make it darker and more brutal. Even though Snyder keeps pushing for it, it’s unlikely that there will be a new version of the much older and more niche Sucker Punch after Justice League and Rebel Moon.