Suicide Squad’s David Ayer to Direct New Movie for Paramount

David Ayer is best known for helming Suicide Squad (2016), End of Watch (2012), and Fury (2014), and this year he made The Beekper starring Jason Statham, which ended up being a hit with both critics and audiences alike. If you’ve been waiting to find out what Ayer has planned next, Deadline has you covered. The outlet reported today that Ayer is signed onto direct Paramount Pictures’ Heart of the Beast, which is being produced by La La Land and Babylon director, Damien Chazelle. 

Chazelle is producing Heart of the Beast with Olivia Hamilton under their Wild Chickens Productions banner as part of their first-look deal with Paramount. Ayer and Chris Long are producing the project under their Cedar Park Entertainment banner. Cameron Alexander wrote the script and will also executive produce alongside co-producer, Richard Raymond. You can read a description of the film below:

“The story follows a former Navy SEAL and his retired combat dog who attempt to return to civilization after a catastrophic accident deep in the Alaskan wilderness.” 

Will DC Studios Release the Ayer Cut?

In 2022, it was announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran are now the co-chairs and co-CEOs of DC Studios, a new entity formed to replace DC Films. Ayer has previously shown his support for Gunn’s new position, but he has also been very open about wanting Warner Bros. to release his version of Suicide Squad. Considering he’s friendly with Gunn on Twitter, many fans have wondered if Gunn will release the “Ayer Cut.” Soon after Gunn’s new role was announced, he addressed some of the fan requests, including saving Legends of Tomorrow after it was canceled and releasing the “Ayer Cut.”

More recently, Ayer debunked rumors that his cut was coming and said in a tweet earlier this year that he was “done” with DC Studios. While promoting The Beekeeper, he called his cut of Suicide Squad, “one of the best comic book movies ever made.”

“The studio has gone through several iterations of leadership, and nobody involved ever had any malice or ill will or anything. Everyone just wanted the same result, which was a great commercial movie,” Ayer explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “There was just a big delta on what that was. The thing that’s been difficult for me is that I made a great film. I made a great film.”

“The people who have seen my cut have pretty much unanimously said that it’s one of the best comic book movies ever made,” he added. “If someone who’s seen the cut wants to dispute that, then they can come talk to me. I was pilloried, pilloried, in the media again and again over it, and then pilloried again and again in the press launch of subsequent IPs, but I kept my mouth shut for years. I learned that nature abhors a vacuum, and if you don’t tell your story, then somebody else will. It’s incredibly unjust, and I can’t point to a similar situation, ever. It’s mind-blowing. It’s a scar, it’s a wound and it’s taken a lot out of me. It also took a lot of equity out of my career, unfairly.”

Stay tuned for more updates about David Ayer’s next project.