David Ayer Says Suicide Squad Was ‘Ripped to Pieces’ And Missing 40 Minutes Of Footage
JB Augustine
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It’s no secret by now the Suicide Squad released to theaters in 2016 wasn’t what director David Ayer intended. What is still becoming crystal clear slowly is how severely his vision was corrupted.
Responding to an inquiring fan on Twitter, Ayer revealed 40 minutes of footage was excised from the final cut by Warner Bros.
Related: The Suicide Squad Producer Confirms Rumors And Reveals Plots Details For The Film
The first 40 minutes https://t.co/eCGmK0KCFl
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) October 31, 2020
The answer was to a trending question posed by a pro-Ayer Cut account: what was the hardest scene to leave out?
40 minutes leaves a lot more than one scene out and most of the material, you can bet, encompassed the unused subplot involving Jared Leto as The Joker.
Ayer went on to add his film “was ripped to pieces,” a fact he says he can’t stress enough.
He blames leadership at the studio for panicking because Batman v. Superman was received negatively. Deadpool, released the same year, was a smash and they wanted a tone more like that.
Major elements “were ripped out” before Ayer “could mature the edit,” he explained. The filmmaker then took aim squarely at Geoff Johns for handing him pages to reshoot.
Related: David Ayer Shares Screenplay Page Further Confirming His Cut of Suicide Squad
Ayer is the latest person to call out Johns for interference. The former DC Entertainment executive is embroiled in Ray Fisher’s crusade against Warner Bros. and DC brass, as well as Joss Whedon.
Jason Momoa backed up Fisher’s charges and Grace Randolph has reported Johns is nobody’s favorite individual at WB/DC.
The intended dramatic tone Ayer had for Suicide Squad went from that to comical. It naturally underperformed, according to expectations, and is widely deemed a mess.
Related: Suicide Squad: David Ayer Reveals New Details About a Key Scene with Joker & Harley Quinn
Ayer has assembled his original cut and professes it is a better movie. He even watched it recently and tweeted, “I watched my cut for the first time since it was abandoned. It is f***ing amazing. On God.”
Whether it sees a release is another matter. The “Release The Ayer Cut” campaign is gaining steam and support, thanks to the auspicious rallying cry for The Snyder Cut. Chances are, sadly, the studio won’t be swayed.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League is being completed and is coming to HBO Max next year. It might even spawn hoped-for sequels and spinoffs.
Suicide Squad, the Ayer version, isn’t having the same luck. Reports it will hit the streaming service were shot down by Ayer a few days ago.
“Not true,” he tweeted Sunday in a quoted post.
For now, the best anyone can do is any deleted scenes on the Blu-ray and James Gunn’s continuation, The Suicide Squad, out next summer.
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