In May, director Zack Snyder stepped away from Justice League because of a family tragedy. Snyder had directed the bulk of Justice League, and Warner Bros hired Joss Whedon to step in and finish off the film. Justice League’s production was already limping along at that point – I feel bad about saying this about a guy dealing with family tragedy, but Zack Snyder is a hack who has destroyed several beloved franchises, and Justice League seemed like a colossal waste of everyone’s time and money. The production dragged on, and Snyder was already planning for reshoots when he stepped away. Now that Wonder Woman is such a success – in spite of Snyder, not because of him – WB has an idea of what it would be like to revitalize these franchises away from Snyder’s lens-flare-happy ideas. Which is why it sounds like Joss Whedon is doing a complete overhaul on Justice League, an overhaul which includes lots of expensive reshoots and terrible scheduling conflicts:
How much WB is spending: The studio, which had no comment on the scheduling trouble, is spending approximately $25 million on extensive reshoots that have dragged on for roughly two months in London and Los Angeles, according to multiple insiders. It’s standard for big Hollywood movies to schedule a few weeks of pick-up work, but the cost and time allotted to the work on “Justice League” is raising some eyebrows. Reshoots, or additional photography, to use the preferred studio nomenclature, traditionally cost between $6 million and $10 million, and rarely have to juggle so many competing schedules. They typically last a week or two.
Ezra Miller is having a hard time: Miller is reprising his “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” role in the film’s sequel, which started filming earlier this summer. Sources indicate that since that is also a Warner Bros. property, scheduling has been easier. The studio has gone out of its way to make him available, but his growing role in the world of wizarding series has made it difficult for him to suit up as the Flash on the same days that other co-stars are available.
Henry Cavill’s mustache: “Justice League’s” Man of Steel had expected to be able to finish shooting the sixth “Mission: Impossible” film before needing to don Superman’s spandex again. That has not been the case, however, as the new scenes that are being shot have required him to jump back and forth from each production. Because of this, a mustache he grew for his character in the “Mission: Impossible” sequel will have to be digitally removed in post-production. Paramount, which is distributing the “Mission: Impossible” sequel, would not allow Cavill to shave the facial hair while production was taking place.
Joss Whedon is earning his paycheck: Sources say “Justice League” reshoots have been used to punch up the dialogue. Whedon, the director of “The Avengers,” is well respected for his ability to create memorably wry exchanges between his characters. The set pieces Snyder shot are said to be usable, but Whedon has been working on “connective tissue” that was needed to link sequences.
WB will do it differently from now on: “Justice League” is spending the kind of time and money on reshoots that mid-budget films would have to shoot an entire movie… Going forward, Warner Bros. has changed its greenlighting process. It will now factor weeks and millions of dollars of additional photography into the production budgets of its major comic book films, according to insiders. Other studios have made similar accommodations on their big-budget films.
Like, is “factoring in reshoots” the way to go? Wouldn’t it be easier and smarter to simply get all of your ducks in a row in pre-production? That’s when the script issues should be worked out, and figuring out which action sequences work, etc. These studios keep throwing all of this money at troubled productions, hoping they can just spend their way out of trouble instead of actually learning how to hire directors who properly prepare. Just my guess: Joss Whedon is doing a lot more than just punching up some dialogue. Let’s be real.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Warner Bros, Backgrid.
I really want this to be good, mostly because I want it to an A-list launching pad for Jason Mamoa. He really deserves one. I hope WB hasn’t royally messed this one up.
The trailer was a mess
Good morning Jason. That is all.
Please, please, please don’t mess with the glory that is Jason Momoa.
My guess is he and Gal will be the only reasons to see it.
I tried to read, l did, but was too distracted by the gorgeous that is Jason Momoa.
Seriously, he looks like a demi god. He’s bringing out the inner giggling 12 year old girl in me…
…….only reason I’m here.
Love Jason mamoa but think cyborg guy looks terrible. And the trailer was a hot mess. Not holding out hope.
I pointed out on Sunday’s post that Fisher said Joss came in to clean up / finish up the film. It was a fruedian slip. I hope Josh can do a great job like with Avengers.
That is very telling!!! I’m holding out hope the finished product will be good, there’s some great characters and JL storylines to draw from and the mention of lanterns in the trailer has me hoping green lantern will make an appearance 🙂
I don’t know the exact quote but when I read your comment before I did have the thought that it could be a baseball reference. “Batting clean up” is when you’re 4th in the lineup and your goal is basically to drive the boys on base in to score. The first and second hitters are fast and get on base, your 3rd hitter hits for power and your fourth hitter finishes the job and drives anyone left on base in. Alex Rodriguez was a clean up hitter for a lot of his career.
But I didn’t see the panel so I can’t say for sure that’s what was meant. If so, it’d be a nice way of saying Zac did a lot of the work and Joss is just coming in to bring it home.
@KB I know and understand baseball references. I’ve been a fan of baseball for many many years. That is not what Fisher meant. The quote was something like Joss is a great director. I’m glad he was brought in to clean up/ finish up the film.
I’m really not looking forward to Whedon’s “oh-so-clever” dialogue in this.
Actually it’s pretty standard. Movies from the hunger games to Star Wars have had reshoots before. When editing and looking at the sequences you have, the reshoots are there to get those last takes.
What isn’t normal is having a new guy redoing what seems like large chunks of the movie. Reshoots typically are short, shorter days and with less people. Sounds like they have the entire main cast in reshoots. Doesn’t bode well
Superman 2 – Richard Donner fired, Richard Lester replaces him and reshoots most of the film. Huge hit.
I’m hoping that is what is happening here.
I thought the comic con trailer looked better than any trailer released for the film so far. I’m wondering how much of that footage was from Snyder and how much from Whedon? Somehow I think adding in more Wonder Woman/Themyscira scenes was all Whedon, post WW smash.
The replacement for Superman though wasn’t in post production. He had time to do an entire reshoot. And even then Superman made money but it wasn’t a critical hit I don’t think. The problem with DCEU is they make money but aren’t loved by critics. And that’s what they want because it gives their movies legs and crossover appeal.
If anyone can do it Whedon can. However he has huge issues with big bosses and his scripts. So who knows how long this will last. He didn’t last long at marvel. I agree that the additional WW-esque scenes are probably new. They seem to recut things to minimize Batman and up WW.
They aren’t loved by fans, either. There’s a dedicated core of Snyder Batnerds who defend the movies so far, but those enormous second-week drops means everyone else checks out. Wonder Woman is the first movie they’ve made people actually like.
Also, Joss didn’t last long at Marvel? He lasted five years! Yes, he had problems with Avengers 2 but he still put in five solid years of work. That’s half a decade. It’s nothing to sneeze at.
5 years but only two movies that burned him out. I like Whedon and his style but he got burned out completely. And I’m saying this not from tabloid coverage but because of the few talks I went with him as the speaker. He talks about his issues with his scripts that he treats like his babies. He takes criticism hard and it puts him at odds with the big brass. The Avengers criticism hit him hard. That’s all I’m saying. He doesn’t seem to adapt when people don’t LOVE his stuff. He starting at a disadvantage here and I’m wondering how long it will last.
“Only” two movies in five years is about as fast as any director can work. Movies take years to make. But, true, it completely burned him out. I’m a little surprised he’s so delicate. I understand being protective of your work, especially if it feels like corporate interests are overshadowing your creative control, but at the same time, he’s been a professional writer and filmmaker for decades. How has he not developed a thicker skin for criticism? It’s not just him, frankly a lot of filmmakers seem like delicate flowers.
@Nicole – he directed two but also did uncredited script doctor/dialogue work on the first two Captain America films, iirc – he was the creative overseer for Marvel’s phase 2, and it burned him out. I didn’t love Ultron, and part of that may be just as much down to his story choices as Marvel’s imperatives. I hope the Russos do better for Infinity War, because so far they’ve done well.
Not to mention, $25 million extra in reshoots alone? And like you said, taking enough days for this reshoot to overlap with the actors’ other project schedules, which tells me they decided at the last minute to do more than what was originally planned. This film already looks a mess, and now I just wonder how cohesive the final product will be with all these changes/added stuff. And if there’s any WB has done consistently in the past is redirect the PR conversation via lies. Ugh. Everyone already knows WB is in this for the money, first and foremost, and at the expense of actually putting out a decent film or creating a decently planned cinematic universe. What a joke.
Tedious, expensive and ridiculous sounds like an apt description of the DCEU to date, with the exception of Wonder Woman. Justice League is a hot mess and that trailer proved that most of what was shot was a hot mess. Wonder Woman dodging bullets. Really? Good luck, Joss. You’ve got work to do.
“Like, is “factoring in reshoots” the way to go?”
Honestly? Yes, if Marvel is any indication. They reshoot like crazy and factor that into the schedules.
I agree it would be better to get it right the first round but that just doesn’t seem to be the way of things now. It’s really not unusual but it depends on what gets into the mainstream. For example both Force Awakens and Rogue One had a bunch of reshoots but they managed to keep the Force Awakens ones out of the media so it didn’t have the same scrutiny on those reshoots. It’s tricky once stories like this are out because on one hand if you have a big critical and commercial success like Rogue One it’s all golden. But if the movie falls short in any way people are already primed to attack because “they knew it all along”.
“Yes, if Marvel is any indication. They reshoot like crazy and factor that into the schedules.”
No they don’t. Marvel is the one doing 1-2 weeks for $10 million or less. They didn’t even do big reshoots for Avengers 2, the movie they had the most trouble with, and the one they probably *should* have done this kind of rework on, to make the whole Thor thing make sense. Star Wars, though, has done massive reshoots like you mentioned, and it’s worked out for them. It is possible to make it work, it’s just such a huge waste of money when you should be setting this stuff up in the script before you even start production, like Kaiser said.
To clarify I was referring to planning in reshoots. They do that for every movie they do. They assume it will be needed and factor in the possibility for everything. Sometimes for one week, sometimes several weeks, whatever they need. Either way the point is they don’t (and don’t assume) they’ve got it with principle photography and the films have mostly been the better for it. Of course it doesn’t always work from a quality perspective, they reshot on Thor Dark World and that was garbage. The difference of course is the extent of the JL ones. We will see.
http://www.laineygossip.com/Captain-America-2-reshoots-and-spoilers/29034
Oh I misunderstood, sorry. I thought you meant they were in the basket of reshooting practically half their movies every time, not just that they plan for a couple of weeks of fixes down the line.
I have wondered if digital is part of the reason we’re seeing more and more reshoots. Film is expensive, and while films have always had pick-ups and technical fixes (we do reshoots on commercials, for goodness sakes), it seems like the rise of weeks of reshooting has coincided with digital eclipsing celluloid as the main format for making movies. I think it makes people feel like it’s no big deal since you don’t have to buy/process more film. You’ve already got the camera for production, so what’s the hardship in using it again? But when you had so many feet of film, and *that is all you had,* you had to plan better and have a sharper script because you knew you only had one shot to get your film. I feel like these reshoots are a sloppy habit encouraged by too-easy technology.
I don’t really see a problem with reshoots being factored in— as long as someone somewhere along the way realizes a budget is a budget and to prepare and proceed accordingly.
Why wouldn’t he just wear a fake moustache for his other movie? Digitally removing it post production??? That is ridiculous.
No more ridiculous than digitally removing Gal Gadot’s 7-month baby bump during Wonder Woman reshoots.
It sounds like his contract said that he couldn’t shave his facial hair for the other movie. So the movie doing the reshoots is stuck using computers to fix things.
My god Jason is a beautiful man, that is all.
Jason Momoa…I…can’t….stop….looking….so….distracted….help…I can’t….too gorgeous….
Am I the only one that does not find Momoa attractive whatsoever?! He’s freaky looking to me with that eyebrow and is he wearing white nail polish ?? Wrestler type body – no and no !
More for me…
I’m sure I’d flutter if I were near him, since tall, big guys get me going. But all I see when I look at him is the man who said that he loved being paid to rape beautiful women on screen when he was on GoT, and then who kept kissing Rose McGowan at the Conan premiere while his hand was on her lower back – lower than he held his own wife.
You’re not alone. I think he’s freaky ugly and I find nothing attractive about him. Everyone has their own opinion of what’s attractive, but I don’t see him gorgeous and hot like so many others think he is
When you notice Momoa’s chicken legs,It is over http://media.gq.com/photos/57dac4c9beed5f275b337dc3/master/w_2067/jason-momoa-airport.jpg .like many actors ,he doesn’t workout his legs
He does absolutely nothing for me.
Lens-flare is J.J. Abrams’ thing. Snyder is all about slow-mo and that bwaaaap sound before an explosion.
JL trailer is this 😽
And filming Earth as a planet in another galaxy, apparently.
How about cutting out Superman out of the picture? Bang…..problem solve. He’s a terrible actor, it’s his good looks and terrible PR that has gotten him this far.
Jason Mamoa can hoick me up anytime!