Warner Brothers and DC Entertainment are of course still hard at work in getting the DC Extended Universe of superhero film adaptations on a solid footing. They hope to do this with the one-two punch of films for 2017, namely “Wonder Woman” this June and finally “Justice League” on November. The former is well on the way to exploding onto cinemas with their last full trailer being released days before.
The latter meanwhile is still in need of some scene tweaking, with a number of reshoots being scheduled for next month. However, this portion will have to be taken up by somebody else as director Zack Snyder has announced that he will not be able to complete his work and must step down for personal reasons.
Snyder tags in Whedon
Zack Snyder has announced that he will take his leave of directing the final reshoots of “Justice League,” the highly-anticipated DC superhero team film that would be Warner Bros.’ answer to Disney/Marvel’s “Avengers” from 2012.
The reason is that he needs time to both mourn the sudden death of his daughter two months ago. Joining Snyder in his departure is his wife, “Justice League” producer Deborah Snyder, who plans to focus on seeing their family heal from the tragedy first.
As to the matter of who would be chosen to take over for Snyder and wrap up all the reshoots needed for “Justice League”, Warner/DC has decided to call on none other than joss whedon, creator of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and – interestingly – Marvel’s “Agents of SHIELD” series on ABC.
Not to mention, Whedon was also the director of “Avengers.” The producers hope that with Whedon taking over the helm from Snyder, “Justice League” will complete both its scene reshoots and post-production work just in time to make the November 11 premiere.
Remembering the lost
Word has only come out now regarding Zack Snyder’s loss due to the death of his daughter being kept secret.
Autumn Snyder committed suicide way back in March at the age of 20. This had been the true reason for a two-week break from working on “Justice League” that was called at around that same time, as the Snyders dealt with the sudden tragedy discretely from the public.
Although initially, Snyder had hoped that returning to work on the film would help him and his wife to cope, he eventually announced in an emotional interview Monday, May 22 that they needed some time off to spend with their other children.
Snyder also talked about a science fiction manuscript that his daughter had written in life, and plans to have it published in her memory, with the proceeds going to charity. This event recalls to the mind of Warner/DC fans the sudden death of Heath Ledger in 2008 during the production of “The Dark Knight,” where he portrayed the Joker.
