Zack Snyder's first stab at a completely original film with 2011's fantasia/genre shoot-em-up adventure Sucker Punch was met with mixed critical reactions, some controversy about its seemingly sleazy treatment of its primarily female cast and didn't score at the box office. But now, he'd like to see it re-evaluated and mentions in a new interview with Letterboxd about plans for a director's cut.
"I've never gotten around to doing the director's cut, he says. "I still plan to at some point."
Partly that's because he'd like to re-instate his preferred ending… "In the original ending when Babydoll (Emily Browning) is in the chair in the basement with Blue (Oscar Isaac) - she's already been lobotomized — when the cop shines the light on her, the set breaks apart and she stands up and she sings a song on stage. She sings, 'Ooh, Child, things are gonna get easier.' Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), and all the people that have been killed, join in and it's the idea that in a weird way, even though she's lobotomized, she's kind of stuck in this infinite loop of euphoric victory. It's weirdly not optimistic and optimistic at the same time. That's kind of what the tone was at the end. We tested it and the studio thought it was too weird, so we changed it. The voiceover was written by Richard Bach. He and I kicked it around. The original version doesn't have any voiceover, because it was meant to be more interpretive, you know?"
Of course, the control of the film rests with Warner Bros., which has already had its experience with Snyder's mammoth Justice League cut.
Snyder also opens up about the reactions to the film, which he describes as 'polarizing'. "I feel like the main criticism of the film was that it was too exploitative. People took the movie as if the girls fighting and all that stuff was the movie. I found that slightly disheartening." For more from Snyder on Sucker Punch, head to Letterboxd's site.
And he talked to Empire exclusively about his latest film, Rebel Moon. Get a taste of that here.