Release the Ayer Cut?

[The Laughing Fish]

While showing his support for David Ayer, Jay Hernandez took the opportunity to express his distaste for Diablo getting killed off in Studio Squad.

On a personal note. When the powers that be decided to "sacrifice" Diablo I thought, "Yeah, I get it. There's obviously way too many Latino superheroes in these tent pole movies." Needless to say, I was not happy. They love to take our money at the box office though.

https://www.twitter.com/jay_hernandez/status/1420892306702438403

I must admit, I never had a problem with Diablo dying. But I get Hernandez's frustrations.

Um, well, hmm.

Standard disclaimer: I rly resent when people toss accusations of racism everywhere. It's never helpful or beneficial to make snap judgments like that.

Having said that... I mean, the Whedon JL has, uh, raised a few legit questions as to racial biases of the non-Snyder personnel calling the shots with the hacked up movie. The idea of sacrificing a poc character who was originally supposed to survive the movie raises even more questions. At least, for me, idk about anyone else.

And look, I don't like this any more than anybody else. I also still believe that 99% of "racist" incidents rly aren't motivated by racism at all. But this is starting to look bad. I'm trying to give all parties involved the benefit of the doubt. But the problem is that they keep proving that they don't deserve it. What else am I supposed to think here?

Warner Butchers lost any benefit of the doubt a long time ago when they hijacked JL. It says a lot how they respond to Ray Fisher's allegations by distracting people with hit pieces or announcements to new film projects, whether it's that BS Jason Momoa Frosty the Snowman press release or black Superman. Yet, no adequate denial or condemnation if Fisher was unequivocally lying, nor lawsuits filed against him. They continue to dig a massive PR hole for themselves.

But even if their misconduct wasn't racially motivated, that doesn't make their actions any less malicious. For example, if removing John Stewart from ZSJL wasn't a racist decision, it was clearly intended to kill two birds with one stone by spiting Snyder - who was determined to put the character in the ending by filming his scene before  he was forced to compromise, and Fisher - who is good friends with Wayne T. Carr and helped him get the GL role. Let's not even get into the taunting and disrespect of fans and creators alike with their ZSJL "trilogy trailer" and Josstice League 4K trailers a few months ago. Anyone who compares decades old film productions for having no reported controversies clearly don't understand the current situation. The people in charge are not fit be where they are.

As for Diablo, why did the studio decide to kill him off? Admittedly, his death does pay off as a sacrifice and concludes his own arc, but that's likely in spite of what the studio intended. They're not storytellers by any means.

It's too bad that Ayer went along with taking responsibility for Studio Squad, when the wretched studio hasn't done him any favours at all. The more I read Ayer's letter and the way he poured his whole heart into it, the more angry I get at Gunn's stupid tweet he sent to him weeks ago.

Although a lot of the major players at Warners were different people, there was no doubt their troubles with you helped to pave an easier path for me, David, so I'm very grateful for that, and for everything else you did to help this movie along its path.

https://www.twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1412569250271617029

Not only this is not true because Emmerich is still there (and maybe Johns as well, albeit secretly demoted for all we know), the comment itself comes across as spiteful. "I'm very grateful that the studio screwed you over and you took the brunt of very personal attacks by critics, because it made my job easy and I get the privilege of doing whatever I want". As I said before, Gunn has liked tweets that have denigrated Ayer and SS while praising his directing on this reboot. He is such a dirty snake. But Ayer is too much of a gentleman to lash out.

If that wasn't bad enough, the real reason why Ayer wrote this letter in the first place was because shills like that douche he was replying to were all taking shots at him over Studio Squad, while writing their "glowing" reviews for Gunn's latest movie. Excuse my language, but f*** them all.

[The Laughing Fish]

Mark Hughes of Forbes wrote an article why it makes sense to release the Ayer cut.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2021/07/30/warner-hbo-max-should-release-the-ayer-cut-of-suicide-squad/?sh=195a971a5d4f

Here are one snippet from the article I want to comment.

Suicide Squad was a breakout hit, a blockbuster to the tune of $747 million without a release in China. It's one of the most successful and popular of the early DCEU films. Domestic DVD/Blu-ray sales and rentals alone topped $100+ million, not including international sales and rentals, and not including digital sales and rentals. Imagine what the total merchandising revenue must be. Why on earth wouldn't a studio want to release a new version of that film, touted by the filmmaker as a very different and superior version?

Because it's clear by now the people in charge of Toxic WB would rather protect their fragile little egos at the expense of profit, and will even hinder their own productions. Think of the trouble Snyder has revealed upon releasing ZSJL. I repeat, Emmerich and co are not fit to lead.

In the meantime, Mikey Sutton has doubled down on the chances of the Ayer cut coming out as a very likely possibility, among other things, in a YouTube livestream the other day while Warner are getting prepared for the Discovery merger. It seems his scoop on Batfleck appearing in costume in The Flash was from a few weeks ago turned out 100% correct, so one might be tempted to take his word. But then again, he might've gotten lucky.

[The Laughing Fish]

Curiously, a Variety reporter who was at the TSS premiere had asked the actors about the Ayer cut. Aside from Margot Robbie dodging the question, everybody else is in favour of releasing it.

Even more curious was David Ayer asking organisers of an Ayer cut trending Twitter campaign to postpone it for next week on the 13th of August, so it doesn't clash with the reboot's release. The original date for this campaign was the 5th of August, which would've marked the 2016 theatrical cut's five year anniversary.



Either there is something happening behind the scenes to satisfy all parties so Gunn can have his moment and Ayer can finally get his cut out soon, or Ayer is too much of a loyal friend to Gunn. If it's the latter then that's a real shame, because has been rather two-faced judging from what I've seen from his behaviour. But I can't help but get a good feeling about this. Ayer's letter was possibly a breaking point. Does Warner really want to have another director's cut controversy lingering over their heads again, when their reboot is ready to debut?

[The Laughing Fish]

In an interview with THR, producer Charles Roven has revealed Ayer's cut and a studio cut had the same reaction among test audiences, so the studio and the producers tried to merge the two cuts together. Hence, the theatrical cut.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/suicide-squad-james-gunn-david-ayer-cut-1234994105/

Reading how Roven reflects on some of the issues behind the scenes of JL, he comes across as a company man.

[The Laughing Fish]

Well, #ReleaseTheAyerCut trended big numbers over the weekend. There has been so much to cover that it's exhausting, so I'm going to let this guy's video cover most of what was revealed. It includes a never-before-seen screenshot of Harley Quinn kissing Deadshot, David Ayer thanking the fans for their efforts in supporting the cut, and the unofficial RTAyerCutSS Twitter page releasing screenshots of David Ayer's script.

One thing that bothers me about this video is the rationale behind WarnerMedia is possibly pleased with how Gunn's SS turned out in spite of its box office performance. I've checked out some data from Samba TV saying that the film didn't debut with big numbers compared to Mortal Kombat on smart TV devices (tbf, this source also said ZSJL reached only 1.8 million views, so I don't know how reliable it is). But even if it were true that Gunn's reboot did exceptionally well on HBO Max and WarnerMedia thinks it makes up for the box office loss, then why did they reportedly spend over $100 million in marketing? As it stands, this movie has no chance in breaking even, in addition to their $185 million budget. People can blame the pandemic, but it seems to be doing much worse compared to other movies.

It doesn't make much sense to me, but Warner doesn't care to about making sense. They'd rather cut their nose to spite their own faces even in they're staring at a money pit. If it's true that they really value Rotten Tomatoes aggregate scores then that whole business is in dire need of a clean up.

Anyway, here the final trending figure for the hashtag.



https://twitter.com/RTAyerCutSS/status/1426971506219814917

After showing his gratitude for all the fans who took to Twitter, David Ayer wrote a few more tweets. First is this great screenshot of him calling out this clickbait site about his cut getting screen tested.





Looking back in that THR link in my last post, Charles Roven the "Ayer-preferred" cut that was screened to a test audience was edited by somebody else.

The interesting thing was, when we tested the Ayer version — to be honest, I can't sit here and remember how we got to that edited version, who was editing that edited version — but it wasn't Lee [Smith]. It was somebody else that came in. The studio version was also different editors as well. We tested both versions. They tested exactly the same. Because they tested exactly the same, David and the studio and ourselves, meaning Rich and I and the heads of DC at that time — Jon Berg and Geoff Johns — we all sat in a room and tried to come up with what would be the best of both versions. Obviously, the movie made a really nice piece of change. Audiences liked it enough for us to want to do a sequel. But it definitely wasn't the exact vision of David, and it definitely wasn't the exact vision of the studio.

Finally, Ayer tweeted this cryptic comment, but then he later deleted it.



Is it a jab at someone personally, or at Warner Butchers in general? Hmmm.

[The Laughing Fish]

Mikey Sutton is now claiming the Ayer cut will be announced at this year's DC FanDome. He reckons Suicide Squad's future as a movie franchise is in serious doubt because the reboot is a box office flop, despite getting good reviews. The Ayer cut is apparently not only the franchise's last role of the dice, but it leaves WB no choice because they need more content to hype up in order to compete with Disney Plus Day, which is expected to make huge announcements.

Sutton even made a bolder prediction by saying a Ben Affleck Batman film is on course to be announced at DC FanDome. VERY skeptical. With that said, Sutton did scoop that Affleck would suit up in The Flash, and that appears to be correct. He even declared TSS would have a terrible box office debut a week before it came out, and he was correct. But I still strongly doubt this Batfleck movie scoop. Besides, I thought it was going be a series?

[The Laughing Fish]

https://twitter.com/DavidAyerMovies/status/1431486292982841348

Hmmm...would Ayer be eager to join a watch party for the reboot if there wasn't a big announcement coming?

[thecolorsblend]

https://twitter.com/DavidAyerMovies/status/1431486292982841348

Hmmm...would Ayer be eager to join a watch party for the reboot if there wasn't a big announcement coming?

Would Ayer make an announcement about his own movie knowing that everyone involved with the reboot would interpret that a middle finger?

Not saying it's impossible. But I think it would offend a lot of people Ayer might not want as enemies.

[The Laughing Fish]

https://twitter.com/DavidAyerMovies/status/1431486292982841348

Hmmm...would Ayer be eager to join a watch party for the reboot if there wasn't a big announcement coming?

Would Ayer make an announcement about his own movie knowing that everyone involved with the reboot would interpret that a middle finger?

Not saying it's impossible. But I think it would offend a lot of people Ayer might not want as enemies.

Well, something must up but it seems you're right to assume it's unlikely anything will happen at this watch party. The official Ayer cut Twitter account claims there won't be any announcements, but does stress that things look promising.

https://twitter.com/RTAyerCutSS/status/1431727583897477121
https://twitter.com/RTAyerCutSS/status/1431747557051543553

I guess we'll have to wait to hear if we get any announcements at DC FanDome. I find it hard to believe that Ayer continues to be the company cheerleader after everything he has revealed. I am quietly confident that something is happening.

[thecolorsblend]

Well, something must up but it seems you're right to assume it's unlikely anything will happen at this watch party.

If it makes you feel any better, it was moments after I posted that when I remembered that Gunn has been named in that whole pedo thing. So, I'm thinking his stock has fallen a bit in Hollywood at this moment.

I find it hard to believe that Ayer continues to be the company cheerleader after everything he has revealed.

You catch more flies with honey. Besides, the regime that mangled his movie is gone so why make a big deal out of it?