In 1978, Richard Donner’s Superman featured the now-famous tagline, “You will believe a man can fly.” Now, more than 40 years later, here comes Zack Snyder’s Justice League, a film that will make you believe Batman can say “fuck.” Because the Snyder Cut, as all the kids call it, is officially rated R. Of course, this isn’t the first R-rated superhero movie – not by a long shot. But it’s yet more proof that Snyder’s take on these characters is geared towards adults, just in case you needed another reminder.
You have to admit: the novelty of an R-rated superhero movie has kind of worn off at this point. Yes, there was a time when such an idea was considered unthinkable, but we’re well beyond that by now. Nonetheless, it’s still newsworthy to note that Zack Snyder’s Justice League, aka the Snyder Cut, now has an official R rating. The rating comes from FilmRatings.com, which notes that the flick is “Rated R for violence and some language.”
Some language?! Look out, kids! The Flash might say “shit” or something like that! Anyway, this news will no doubt be widely embraced by the very vocal Snyder Cut fanbase, all of whom like to loudly proclaim that Snyder’s superhero movies aren’t for kids, god damn it! They’re serious movies for serious adults! And god help you if you disagree.
The Snyder Cut has had a very strange journey to the screen. The story has too many twists and turns to adequately recount, but here’s the gist: Zack Snyder was the original director of Justice League, but stepped away from the project due to personal reasons. Snyder was replaced by Joss Whedon. And while Snyder is still the credited director of the Justice League that was released in 2017, a lot of the film features stuff reshot by Whedon.
Because of this, Snyder’s ardent fans started swearing up and down that a fabled Snyder Cut existed. That it was 100% ready to go, and all Warner Bros. had to do was release it. This, of course, turned out to not be entirely true. Yes, Snyder had the footage he shot. And yes, there was a rough cut assembled and shown to studio execs before he left the film. But the Snyder Cut, at least as the fandom understood it, didn’t really exist. Not in a final edited form.
That all changed when Warner Bros. decided to launch its own streaming service, HBO Max. Realizing it could draw in subscribers with the promise of the Snyder Cut, HBO Max announced the film would arrive in 2021, and they gave Snyder a whopping $70 million to finish the film. Since then, the director has been cutting together his footage and shot two new scenes, or “bits” as he called them.
And now here we are, with an R-rated, 240-minute-long film that will hit HBO Max on March 18, 2021.
The post Hide the Kids! ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’ is Officially Rated R appeared first on /Film.
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