Over the weekend, The Hollywood Reporter released a report that described the currently ongoing Justice League reshoots as "extensive" and while the cast chose to sidestep this question at their Comic-Con panel on Saturday, with Cyborg actor Ray Fisher claiming. "They’re brief if anything, Zack picked a great director to help clean up for us,” it appears as though there is a lot more going on behind-the-scenes than many would choose to believe.
Variety is now reporting that Warner Bros., in an attempt to ensure that the upcoming film is a worthy successor to last month's Wonder Woman and not a Suicide Squad-type disaster, is spending over $25 million on the extensive reshoots, which, as of today, have already gone on for about two months in London & Los Angeles and are expected to continue for a while longer to prepare the film for its November release.
Reshoots are standard practice in Hollywood, with studios often scheduling them months in advance and typically spending between $6 million and $10 million for any sort of pick-up work needed, which is all generally completed within a week or two depending on the size of the feature. Marvel's Thor: Ragnarok actually just wrapped its own scheduled reshoots last week after just three weeks. The amount of additional time and money spent on Justice League has proven to be quite an anomaly and has raised quite a few questions across the industry as well as on the interwebs.
While the additional photography hasn't proven to be a major issue for stars Ben Affleck & Gal Gadot, who don't have any other projects lined up for the fall, it has caused pretty significant scheduling issues for fellow Leaguers Henry Cavill, who is currently shooting Mission: Impossible 6, and Ezra Miller, who recently started filming the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them sequel.
Since Fantastic Beasts 2 is also a Warner Bros. production, Miller's scheduling conflicts have been manageable, but with his role expanding in that franchise, it's been a challenge matching his busy schedule with the availability of his co-stars.
Cavill, on the other hand, is in an even stickier situation as he was previously expected to be able to finish filming Paramount's Mission: Impossible 6 with Tom Cruise before returning to film new Superman scenes, but that hasn't been the case so far as he's had to instead jump back and forth between the two films. That's not even the crazy part though as according to the report, the glorious mustache Cavill grew for his M:I 6 role, which couldn't be removed until filming concluded, will have to be digitally removed from his new Justice League scenes (that is, unless you want to see a mustachioed Superman, which unfortunately, the studio doesn't).
As for the content of these reshoots, Variety's sources report that they are being used to help step up the dialogue. Snyder's set pieces will still be utilized, but Whedon has been tasked with working on further developing the much-needed connective tissue to link sequences and help bring the film together.
Also, despite months of work, Joss Whedon will not receive a co-directing credit for the film. He will instead most likely receive a producing credit and a screenplay credit.
Borys Kit, of The Hollywood Reporter, has corroborated the initial report, saying the reshoots have been described to him as "substantial" with some actors having to shoot over four weeks of scenes. Jason Momoa, who is currently filming Aquaman in Australia, had to be specially flown in to shoot while Gal Gadot, who had her second child in March, recently finished about two weeks of filming. Several other actors are said to have completed quite a bit more, including The Batman actor Ben Affleck, who will actually be filming additional scenes this week.
So, what do you guys think? Sound off with your thoughts below!
Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
Justice League will feature:
Directors: Zack Snyder & Joss Whedon
Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman
Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman
Amy Adams as Lois Lane
Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman
Ezra Miller as Barry Allen/The Flash
Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry/Aquaman
Ray Fisher as Victor Stone/Cyborg
Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor
Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth
Diane Lane as Martha Kent
J.K. Simmons as Commissioner James Gordon
Billy Crudup as Dr. Henry Allen
Kiersey Clemons as Iris West
Amber Heard as Mera
Willem Dafoe as Nuidis Vulko
Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta
Joe Morton as Dr. Silas Stone
Julian Lewis Jones in an undisclosed role
Ciarán Hinds as Steppenwolf
Justice League unites in theaters November 17