David Ayer still hopes Warner Bros. will #ReleaseTheAyerCut. The writer-director of 2016’s Suicide Squad has defended his still-unseen director’s cut of the DC film and disowned its theatrical cut, which was a financial success but a critical failure. Even before the film’s release, reports emerged that Warners had the film recut to resemble a fun and edgy tone from the trailer (set to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”) rather than Ayer’s reportedly “more somber” version.
“I hope my real film can be shared one day,” Ayer said when sharing a fan-made poster for his director’s cut on social media. “I appreciate the continued support and interest.”
In a subsequent post, Ayer wrote, “The best version simply has not been seen. I know how difficult it is for someone outside the industry to comprehend how insanely different cuts to a film can be.”
RELATED: “M” for Monster: The Weird Origin Story of the Original Creature Commandos
The Fury and Bright filmmaker added that his Suicide Squad director’s cut should be judged on its own merits — once Warner Bros. releases the film as Ayer intended.
“If you dislike what you’ve seen, here’s an opportunity to see what I actually intended and then judge once you have all the information,” Ayer continued, remarking he has “no idea if WB would ever release my version.” Such a decision now lies with DC Studios co-chief and 2021’s The Suicide Squad director-writer James Gunn, who told the filmmaker the Ayer cut “would have [its] time to be shared,” according to Ayer in a post from last year.
“I have to defer to James and the studio to manage it as they see fit. It’s not something I control,” Ayer continued. “I just believe it would be a lot of fun for those who want to see it, to see my cut. If it’s not for you, I totally get that. We all have different taste and likes and dislikes.”
The 2021 release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League — the result of a years-long campaign by fans urging Warners to #ReleaseTheSnyderCut of 2017’s Justice League — renewed interest in the “Ayer cut,” which Ayer has described as “f-cking amazing” and faithful to the tone of the three-minute trailer released at San Diego Comic-Con 2015 (below). That trailer, Ayer said, “nailed the tone and intention of the film I made. Methodical. Layered. Complex, beautiful and sad.”
But after negative reception to 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the success of the Ryan Reynolds-fronted Deadpool, Ayer added, “My soulful drama was beaten into a ‘comedy.’”
“I put my life into Suicide Squad,” Ayer wrote in 2021. “I made something amazing. My cut is intricate and emotional journey with some bad people who are sh-t on and discarded (a theme that resonates in my soul). The studio cut is not my movie. Read that again. And my cut is not the 10 week director’s cut — it’s a fully mature edit by Lee Smith standing on the incredible work by John Gilroy. It’s all Steven Price’s brilliant score, with not a single radio song in the whole thing. It has traditional character arcs, amazing performances, a solid third-act resolution. A handful of people have seen it.”
Ayer added, “I never told my side of the story and never will … I’m old school like that. So I kept my mouth shut and took the tsunami of sometimes shocking personal criticism.” At the time of Ayer’s post, Warners was near the release of The Suicide Squad, the R-rated semi-reboot that largely ignored the events of Ayer’s film.
Ayer went on to add he was “proud” of Gunn, writing, “I support WB and am thrilled the franchise is getting the legs it needs … James’ brilliant work will be the miracle of miracles.” Ayer finished his post stating he would “no longer speak publicly on the matter.”
But in 2023, Ayer expanded on his comments that the former regimes at Warners and DC Films were “shell shocked” by the poor response to Batman v Superman, which suffered one of the steepest second-weekend drops for a superhero film ever.
“Deadpool opened, and then they never tested Batman v. Superman, so they put the movie out there and they never did a test,” Ayer said on the Real Ones podcast. “And they were expecting a different result, and then they got hammered by all the critics, and then it’s like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna turn David Ayer’s dark, soulful movie into a f—ing comedy now.” Ayer claimed that the initial internal reception to his cut prompted talk that he might “take over DC,” which would eventually appoint Gunn and producer Peter Safran as the co-heads of the new DC Studios in 2022.
“They never tested my cut, and the thing is, I have it, I f—ing have it, and if I didn’t, oh my God…” Ayer said. “Everyone I’ve shown the cut has the same reaction: rage. Like, ‘this is the movie we wanted, why didn’t we get this?’”
The Suicide Squad Ayer cut is in a similar position to Snyder’s Justice League director’s cut, which prompted years of speculation about whether it would ever be shown to the public. “It’s like Schrödinger’s Cut now,” Ayer said at the time. “Is it more legendary to see it or more legendary to not see it? I talked to James Gunn, and look… he’s trying to figure that whole mess out.” According to Ayer, DC Studios want to “get some scores on the board first. I show people, but… it’s tough because I want to f—ing move on from it, I want to heal from it.”
The post David Ayer Defends Push for Suicide Squad Director’s Cut: “I Hope My Real Film Can Be Shared One Day” appeared first on ComicBook.com.
