It’s something I’ve said before, but that first trailer for David Ayer’s Suicide Squad which he showed at Comic-Con was one of the best things I’ve ever seen there. And the energy surrounding that moment was just incredible. Then the movie came out and it was…well, okay. Ayer has insisted Warner Bros. execs chopped up his film and altered his vision of it, and in recent months we’ve seen a campaign of fans demanding #ReleaseTheAyerCut, following in the footsteps of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Well, that’s not happening, and Ayer is still upset about it.
“I get it, it’s a business,” Ayer told EW. “It’s frustrating because I made a really heartfelt drama and it got ripped to pieces and they tried to turn it into Deadpool, which it just wasn’t supposed to be. And then you take the hit, you’re the captain of the ship, my name was on it. [Laughs] Even though it didn’t represent what I actually made, I would take all the bullets and be a good soldier. I made an amazing movie. It’s an amazing movie, it just scared the s— out of the executives.”
I’m not sure what he meant by it scaring them. What, they saw an incredible movie and thought “Oh no, we can’t have that!!”? Still, the Ayer Cut is something I desperately want to see, if only because I believe he shares a similar mindset as Snyder.
“I think the studios see now that there can be canon, there can be non-canon, the fans just want to touch it,” Ayer continues. “They love the characters, they just want to spend more time with it. And people are way more sophisticated about how movies are made and want to be participants in the journey. There’s room for different things, different versions, different assets being shared with the audience. I think it just helps strengthen the community. But absolute credit to Warner Bros. for supporting Zack and having the courage to explore that.”
Since this doesn’t appear to be happening, Ayer’s next film is a remake of The Dirty Dozen. He most recently directed Shia LaBeouf in the controversial crime thriller The Tax Collector.
