DC Movie Getting Funeral Screening After Being Taken Away?
Apparently, there’s a better cut of 2016’s Suicide Squad floating around, and writer/director David Ayer wants everybody to see it. Despite its success at the worldwide box office, the film was absolutely destroyed on the critical front, garnering a critical score of 26 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
But according to Ayer, things would have turned out differently if his original vision wasn’t re-cut into the version that we’re familiar with, and he has since expressed the desire to have a funeral screening for the ill-fated blockbuster.
A Funeral Screening For David Ayer’s Suicide Squad
Though David Ayer knew he ran the risk of his creative vision being compromised by working on such a big film as Suicide Squad, he can’t help but think that he was robbed of his artistic license upon its release. What The Beekeeper director has proposed since the film’s theatrical release is the idea of holding a one-off screening for the cast and crew so he could get some sense of closure on the one project that still haunts him to this day.
Ayer considers the poor critical reception of Suicide Squad to be one of the lowest points of his career because whenever another superhero movie comes out, people start talking about how bad Suicide Squad was.
Still Hope For The Ayer Cut?
But it’s worth noting that Ayer has since cooled his jets a little bit, and he isn’t pushing so hard to have the Suicide Squad screening as he had in the past. Back in August, he made a post on X stating that new DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn assured him that the director’s cut (referred to as the “Ayer cut”) will surface when the time is right. For all we know, something is in the works, but we’ll have to wait and see if it ever materializes and gets the screening that we’re all so curious about.
Ayer is also aware of the fact that James Gunn and Peter Safran are gearing up to reboot the entire DCU, and scheduling a screening of a critical flop like Suicide Squad may not be a top priority at the present time. In other words, they have bigger fish to fry, like making sure Superman: Legacy sticks the landing when it sees its 2025 theatrical release.
What’s Different In The Director’s Cut?
So how is David Ayer’s cut of Suicide Squad different from its theatrical release? According to the director himself, the character arcs were fleshed out more cohesively, and the film had a much more satisfying third-act resolution. He has also stated in the past that not a single radio song made its way into his version of the film, but rather a brilliant musical backdrop composed by Steven Price.
A Better Version?
And it makes sense that there is a better version of Suicide Squad that has yet to see the light of day. After all, with an ensemble consisting of Margot Robbie, Will Smith, Jared Leto, and Viola Davis, the film was cast with success in mind. What’s more, it’s clear that David Ayer knows a thing or two about telling a compelling story, and anybody who’s ever watched End of Watch will tell you this.
A Cut As Good As Gunn’s Version?
Though we’ll probably have to wait some time to see the unabridged Ayer cut of Suicide Squad, we’re curious to see if it’s as great as the director says it is. Given how passionate he is about his version of the film, it’s safe to say that would have seen an entirely different version of Suicide Squad if he had anything to say about it.
Source: Variety
