The story, of course, is how a legion of fans coalesced into an online collective that a major motion picture studio could not ignore, ultimately resulting, in part, in said studio giving them what they demanded. And what they demanded was director Zack Snyder’s version of Justice League, the movie he began but which Joss Whedon finished after Snyder left the project. While it was Whedon’s version of the film that limped into theaters back in 2017, it's the long-awaited Zack Snyder’s Justice League (that’s the official name of The Snyder Cut) that Warner Bros. is now backing with a March 18 release on HBO Max. Many fans in The Snyder Cut camp are understandably taking a victory lap as that date approaches, and who can blame them? The new book, Release The Snyder Cut: The Crazy True Story Behind the Fight That Saved Zack Snyder’s Justice League, details how a group of fans from around the world united, from a shared sense of frustration over the version of Justice League that was released in theaters, to help bring about the restoration of Snyder’s vision for DC’s premier super-team. Author Sean O’Connell puts the focus on the fans who built the grass-roots operation as much as he does on the filmmaker whose name is in the hashtag.
“I must admit, I never really believed there was a lot of substance to this movement or how realistic their goals were,” O’Connell tells IGN. “But being at [San Diego] Comic-Con in 2019 and seeing how they launched their own campaign with ads at bus stops and billboards in downtown San Diego, calling for the real Justice League cut… seeing them take that step made me sit up and pay attention.” The group also leased a Times Square digital billboard and rented banner planes to fly over both San Diego Comic-Con and the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank to deliver their message, all in support of a director’s cut many observers didn’t really believe existed. The stories of these ambitious moves are detailed in the book, as is an aspect of the movement that tends to be overlooked: the movement has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Autumn Snyder, the daughter of Zack and his wife/producing partner Deborah Snyder, tragically took her own life during the same period that the Snyders were embroiled in a battle with the studio over the direction of Justice League. Ultimately, Zack and Deborah stepped away from the film after that tragedy. Up until recently, the public reason given for Snyder leaving the movie was due to the death of his daughter. However, in an interview for the book, Snyder suggests the ongoing battles with the studio over his vision for the DC movie universe was also a factor in his decision to leave. Pressure from the studio after the critical drubbing and disappointing box office of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was mounting. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt='I%20was%20just%20kind%20of%20done%20with%20it%2C'%20Snyder%20says.%20'I%20had%20no%20energy%20to%20fight.'"] “I was just kind of done with it,” Snyder says in the book. “I had no energy to fight [the studio], and fight for [the movie]. Literally no energy for that. I really think that’s the main thing. I think there’s a different world where I stayed and kind of tried. And I’m sure I could have… because every movie is a fight, right? I was used to that. But I just did not have the [energy].” The charity work of the movement has seemed to endear the fans to Snyder as much as their immense loyalty to the director and his vision of the DCEU has. One such fan who gained the filmmaker’s attention is Fiona Zheng, who is from China. She sent out the very first tweet suggesting The Snyder Cut, shortly after Justice League’s theatrical release. The book describes how she is considered a founding member of the movement who helped organize it, and someone who Snyder entrusted to share details with early on about his version of Justice League. “Fiona is proof of how global Zack’s fanbase is,” O’Connell says. “She was one of those people who was there from day one. I think because she was so vocal early on, Zack sort of took her under his wing and trusted her and shared stuff on social or behind the scenes to let her know things.” Snyder, in fact, revealed to Zheng in a text message from November 2017 that he had no plans to see the theatrical version of Justice League. There are many other fans from around the world who played integral roles in transforming [HASH=3595]#ReleaseTheSnyderCut[/HASH] into something with real purpose. And yet, O’Connell found that getting [HASH=3596]#RTSC[/HASH] members on the record was a challenge when writing the book because many in the group didn’t trust reporters. Lucky for the author, he knew a guy. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/justice-league-inside-the-snyder-cut-with-zack-snyder-ign-fan-fest-2021"] “I had a really close friend with an older brother who knew a key member of the movement,” says O’Connell. “He agreed to vouch for me. But there was a lot of mistrust early on because of articles that had been written… I think once they saw the questions I was asking, they saw they could trust me to tell their story.” It’s almost impossible to talk about [HASH=3595]#ReleaseTheSnyderCut[/HASH] without mentioning one very vocal and toxic part of the community. Spend enough time on Twitter and/or Facebook talking about superhero movies, and there’s a good chance you’ve come across some Snyder Cut supporters in an online skirmish. O’Connell knows firsthand these aggressive fans exist, but he says that writing the book convinced him that it’s just a small, disgruntled faction that doesn’t represent the overall movement. “I’m not denying that those [toxic fans] exist. They come at me all the time,” he says. “But that corner of fandom… is a bunch of anonymous followers who post all day. They’re not real representatives of the movement.” Regardless of their size, this dark corner of the [HASH=3596]#RTSC[/HASH] campaign has spent the past couple of years making life miserable for many fans, critics, and journalists who dared say anything negative about the film. Some writers and fans have been forced to endure frequent online harassment, and even occasional threats, from members of the [HASH=3596]#RTSC[/HASH] community. However large or small that more toxic segment of the [HASH=3596]#RTSC[/HASH] community might be, the relentless campaign of the larger group ultimately got Warner Bros.’ attention. The director claims in the book that The Snyder Cut presence at SDCC 2019 was so strong that it drowned out the online campaigns of the films the studio was actually releasing. “It was during I think, [2019’s] Comic-Con where there was an article written that said, ‘The biggest WB and DC presence at SDCC this year is for a movie they’d never released,’” Snyder told O’Connell. “We did all these analytics. When we went in to talk to Warner Bros. about possibly releasing the movie, I said… ‘The most tweets, the most social media noise in the history of Warner Bros. is for a film that you guys don’t have out.’” That information got the studio’s attention, according to Snyder. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=justice-league-snyder-cut-all-the-hidden-easter-eggs-and-clues-in-the-mother-box-origins-clip&captions=true"] Eventually, the director secured a commitment from the studio to let him complete his movie his way (Warner Bros.’ need to feed marquee content to its new HBO Max streaming service no doubt played a part in this decision as well). The result is the upcoming four-hour version that the director has described as his own Elseworlds project (referring to the term for out-of-continuity DC Comics stories). At IGN Fan Fest recently, Snyder revealed that the officially named Zack Snyder’s Justice League ends on a “massive cliffhanger.” The reason for that is that Snyder had always intended Justice League to set up two sequels, which as things stand now will never be made. The director also confirmed the Big Bad of the sequel was going to be Darkseid, but fans can take comfort in seeing the Jack Kirby creation make his big debut in The Snyder Cut. “I think that there's a combination of things that all came together in a perfect storm that allowed this to become reality,” Snyder told IGN during Fan Fest. “Probably the most important is the amazing fan support for the film and the near legendary movement that arose from these amazing fans that just wanted to see the movie the way I thought it should be seen.” “I do believe Zack is benefiting from the time he’s getting to finish this,” says O’Connell. “The way he [explained it] when we talked was, ‘I’m now able to make every decision that is right just for this movie.’ And I think it’s very freeing creatively for him. I think we’re going to see a ton of new footage with much more character development than you got with the two-hour version.”
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“I must admit, I never really believed there was a lot of substance to this movement or how realistic their goals were,” O’Connell tells IGN. “But being at [San Diego] Comic-Con in 2019 and seeing how they launched their own campaign with ads at bus stops and billboards in downtown San Diego, calling for the real Justice League cut… seeing them take that step made me sit up and pay attention.” The group also leased a Times Square digital billboard and rented banner planes to fly over both San Diego Comic-Con and the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank to deliver their message, all in support of a director’s cut many observers didn’t really believe existed. The stories of these ambitious moves are detailed in the book, as is an aspect of the movement that tends to be overlooked: the movement has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Autumn Snyder, the daughter of Zack and his wife/producing partner Deborah Snyder, tragically took her own life during the same period that the Snyders were embroiled in a battle with the studio over the direction of Justice League. Ultimately, Zack and Deborah stepped away from the film after that tragedy. Up until recently, the public reason given for Snyder leaving the movie was due to the death of his daughter. However, in an interview for the book, Snyder suggests the ongoing battles with the studio over his vision for the DC movie universe was also a factor in his decision to leave. Pressure from the studio after the critical drubbing and disappointing box office of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was mounting. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt='I%20was%20just%20kind%20of%20done%20with%20it%2C'%20Snyder%20says.%20'I%20had%20no%20energy%20to%20fight.'"] “I was just kind of done with it,” Snyder says in the book. “I had no energy to fight [the studio], and fight for [the movie]. Literally no energy for that. I really think that’s the main thing. I think there’s a different world where I stayed and kind of tried. And I’m sure I could have… because every movie is a fight, right? I was used to that. But I just did not have the [energy].” The charity work of the movement has seemed to endear the fans to Snyder as much as their immense loyalty to the director and his vision of the DCEU has. One such fan who gained the filmmaker’s attention is Fiona Zheng, who is from China. She sent out the very first tweet suggesting The Snyder Cut, shortly after Justice League’s theatrical release. The book describes how she is considered a founding member of the movement who helped organize it, and someone who Snyder entrusted to share details with early on about his version of Justice League. “Fiona is proof of how global Zack’s fanbase is,” O’Connell says. “She was one of those people who was there from day one. I think because she was so vocal early on, Zack sort of took her under his wing and trusted her and shared stuff on social or behind the scenes to let her know things.” Snyder, in fact, revealed to Zheng in a text message from November 2017 that he had no plans to see the theatrical version of Justice League. There are many other fans from around the world who played integral roles in transforming [HASH=3595]#ReleaseTheSnyderCut[/HASH] into something with real purpose. And yet, O’Connell found that getting [HASH=3596]#RTSC[/HASH] members on the record was a challenge when writing the book because many in the group didn’t trust reporters. Lucky for the author, he knew a guy. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/justice-league-inside-the-snyder-cut-with-zack-snyder-ign-fan-fest-2021"] “I had a really close friend with an older brother who knew a key member of the movement,” says O’Connell. “He agreed to vouch for me. But there was a lot of mistrust early on because of articles that had been written… I think once they saw the questions I was asking, they saw they could trust me to tell their story.” It’s almost impossible to talk about [HASH=3595]#ReleaseTheSnyderCut[/HASH] without mentioning one very vocal and toxic part of the community. Spend enough time on Twitter and/or Facebook talking about superhero movies, and there’s a good chance you’ve come across some Snyder Cut supporters in an online skirmish. O’Connell knows firsthand these aggressive fans exist, but he says that writing the book convinced him that it’s just a small, disgruntled faction that doesn’t represent the overall movement. “I’m not denying that those [toxic fans] exist. They come at me all the time,” he says. “But that corner of fandom… is a bunch of anonymous followers who post all day. They’re not real representatives of the movement.” Regardless of their size, this dark corner of the [HASH=3596]#RTSC[/HASH] campaign has spent the past couple of years making life miserable for many fans, critics, and journalists who dared say anything negative about the film. Some writers and fans have been forced to endure frequent online harassment, and even occasional threats, from members of the [HASH=3596]#RTSC[/HASH] community. However large or small that more toxic segment of the [HASH=3596]#RTSC[/HASH] community might be, the relentless campaign of the larger group ultimately got Warner Bros.’ attention. The director claims in the book that The Snyder Cut presence at SDCC 2019 was so strong that it drowned out the online campaigns of the films the studio was actually releasing. “It was during I think, [2019’s] Comic-Con where there was an article written that said, ‘The biggest WB and DC presence at SDCC this year is for a movie they’d never released,’” Snyder told O’Connell. “We did all these analytics. When we went in to talk to Warner Bros. about possibly releasing the movie, I said… ‘The most tweets, the most social media noise in the history of Warner Bros. is for a film that you guys don’t have out.’” That information got the studio’s attention, according to Snyder. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=justice-league-snyder-cut-all-the-hidden-easter-eggs-and-clues-in-the-mother-box-origins-clip&captions=true"] Eventually, the director secured a commitment from the studio to let him complete his movie his way (Warner Bros.’ need to feed marquee content to its new HBO Max streaming service no doubt played a part in this decision as well). The result is the upcoming four-hour version that the director has described as his own Elseworlds project (referring to the term for out-of-continuity DC Comics stories). At IGN Fan Fest recently, Snyder revealed that the officially named Zack Snyder’s Justice League ends on a “massive cliffhanger.” The reason for that is that Snyder had always intended Justice League to set up two sequels, which as things stand now will never be made. The director also confirmed the Big Bad of the sequel was going to be Darkseid, but fans can take comfort in seeing the Jack Kirby creation make his big debut in The Snyder Cut. “I think that there's a combination of things that all came together in a perfect storm that allowed this to become reality,” Snyder told IGN during Fan Fest. “Probably the most important is the amazing fan support for the film and the near legendary movement that arose from these amazing fans that just wanted to see the movie the way I thought it should be seen.” “I do believe Zack is benefiting from the time he’s getting to finish this,” says O’Connell. “The way he [explained it] when we talked was, ‘I’m now able to make every decision that is right just for this movie.’ And I think it’s very freeing creatively for him. I think we’re going to see a ton of new footage with much more character development than you got with the two-hour version.”Continue reading...