The cast and crew of Zack Snyder’s Justice League were anything but delighted with the theatrical version of the DC Comics movie which hit theaters in 2017. Matching their dismay was the fans who longed to see the proper take of on the film without Henry Cavill’s Superman having a mustache digitally removed – in quite poor fashion – from the movie. Now, thanks to te fans who never stopped believing in Zack Snyder’s version of Justice League being a very different film and their positive efforts in raising money and awareness for the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is gearing up to hit HBO Max on Thursday. In this new edition, the footage is delivered as it was intended, something which cinematographer Fabian Wagner is excited for the world to see.
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Wagner talked with ComicBook.com ahead of the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. He, himself, had not yet seen the 4-hour version of the movie yet but he knew it was drastically different from what he and fans saw with the theatrical cut of Justice League. In fact, the theatrical cut of Justice League was quite surprising for Wagner to experience when he saw it for the first time.
“Well, to be honest, we never really saw [theatrical remove Snyder’s work], because I was shooting the Zack one and then something… We did principal photography in 2016. Then we finished,” Wagner recalls. “Then he went to LA. I actually saw him in LA. We were grading the first three trailers, which were all the stuff that we had shot, the first three official trailers that had come out. And then afterwards it all changed. Obviously, Zack had to step away because it was terrible tragedy and then something else and someone else took over snd because I wasn’t involved in the original reshoots either, I didn’t see any of this stuff going on. So it was pretty much a surprise to me when I watched the theatrical cut and it wasn’t the movie that I expected or the movie I had shot with Zack.”
Now, not only is the movie drastically different from the theatrical version in terms of the scenes, story beats, and footage but Snyder decided to release the movie in an aspect ratio which he sees as the best way to portray these characters and their battle. Rather than a traditional widescreen movie which viewers have become accustomed to with modern films, Snyder is releasing Zack Snyder’s Justice League in a 4:3 aspect ration, meaning it is closer to a square appearance and will have black bars on the left and right sides of the screen. Wagner originally came in, “imagining it would be the 2.35 and 2.39 widescreen version that so many of those films have been shot at and also Zack’s previous films have been shot that aspect ratio,” he explained. “I just assumed it would be that.”
Snyder pitched the idea of a full screen take on the film and Wagner was on board. “As soon as he mentioned that new aspect ratio, I said, ‘Wow. Okay. That’s different to what I expected,’” Wagner recalls. “But as soon as he said it, I thought, ‘This could be such a great thing because it’s something that first of all, we don’t expect, but also we’ve got all these major huge characters. So let’s go for a big, big, huge aspect ratio that’s totally different.’ And I thought it was great and I loved it.”
Further down the line, there will be a black and white version of Snyder’s movie available, as well.
“Zack had mentioned the black and white to me early on,” Wagner says. “He said he would love to try and do a version of that. So we kept that in mind with a few things throughout. I haven’t seen that much of it yet. I’ve seen a few bits, and it looks amazing. And so I can’t actually wait to see it as a whole.”
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Image courtesy of DC Studios
