David Ayer has been chatting about getting his cut of Suicide Squad out into the world – and he’s pretty hopeful.
2016’s Suicide Squad movie took over $800m at the global box office, yet the reception to it was such that Warner Bros opted not to proceed with a direct Suicide Squad 2. Instead, rather than get director David Ayer and his team back, it was James Gunn who would come in to make The Suicide Squad for the studio, and sort of reboot the films.
David Ayer has consistently argued that he had his cut of the film taken away from him, and I remember watching the film with Ayer introducing it, and him being open – days ahead of the UK release – that they’d had their backsides kicked a bit by critics.
Zack Snyder, of course, was given the keys and $70m by Warner Bros to go and fashion his eventual cut of Justice League, after originally having the film taken away from him. Ayer has championed his cut of Suicide Squad too, but the funds haven’t been forthcoming for that.
Nattering to Total Film, he continues to insist that he’s “hopeful” his version of the film will finally see the light of day. But, he cautions, there are a lot of people that are invested in certain narratives that don’t want it to see the light of day”.
He added that “there’s an immense political headwind against it, because if that cut were made public, the cowardliness and the whole just general shittiness of how that film’s been treated, and how the actors have had this great work that they’d done taken away…”
They should put all of that on a box.
Warner Bros has been quieter than Ayer on the matter of a fresh Suicide Squad cut, but new DC Universe co-head honcho James Gunn is said to be open to having the fresh cut out there. We wait and see what happens next.
In the meantime, Ayer has just directed Jason Statham in The Beekeeper, which arrives in early January.
