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shadowkatThis is just...so insanely ironic, if you know anything about the back-story behind the Buffy Movie - that lead to Whedon's chance to redo it on Television.
Chris Terrio, the original screenwriter of Justice League is furious with how Whedon vandalized his script
"Chris Terrio is not pulling his punches anymore. For five years the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Argo kept his mouth shut about his work on the DC films Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, even as scorn from critics and fans exacerbated already-painful behind-the-scenes memories. Worst of all, he agreed with many of their complaints.
He described the films that Warner Bros. released to theaters in 2016 and 2017 as incoherent misfires, undermined by corporate meddling, poor franchise planning, and tone-deaf decisions that prioritized costly VFX sequences over coherent storytelling. Terrio believes that Zack Snyder’s director’s cuts of both are much stronger, if still imperfect movies—an overall vindication of their work together.
In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview, the screenwriter said the #SnyderCut of Justice League, recently released as a four-hour-plus event on HBO Max, righted a kind of cinematic wrong perpetrated by studio leadership that has now almost entirely moved on from Warner Bros.
(The studio did not provide any comment on his remarks.)
Terrio first joined the DC Universe to rewrite an existing Batman v Superman script because its Batman actor (the director of Argo) had qualms about the project. “I think the studio brought me in to appease Ben Affleck, because they thought, Okay, well, we have this movie star who is reluctant about doing this, so why don’t we bring in his guy?” Terrio said.
The screenwriter was frank about trying to make sense of the film’s warring heroes, turning their fight into a metaphor for a divided America, while attempting to fix elements he too found nonsensical or offensive. Studio officials then demanded that 30 minutes be removed from the theatrical cut, most likely because shorter run times mean more daily screenings, often resulting in higher box office earnings. Terrio said that act sabotaged the narrative.
“If you took 30 minutes out of Argo, as they were from Batman/Superman, it would make zero sense at all. Critics would say, ‘what a lazy screenplay,’ because the characters don’t have motivations and it’s not coherent,” Terrio said. “And I would agree with them.”
Even the title of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was a disaster, he said, that primed audiences to roll their eyes at the film well before its release.
Terrio hoped Justice League would be a better experience. He was very wrong.
After watching Joss Whedon’s version of that film, Terrio was so disgusted that he explored taking his name off the movie. Especially galling to him was the sidelining of Ray Fisher’s tragic hero, Cyborg, whose arc the actor himself had helped craft."
- Why this is so ironic?
Whedon's Issues with the Buffy Movie
One might think that having an A-list celebrity like Donald Sutherland on board a project would provide a very good opportunity for a project. For the Buffy the Vampire Slayer film, though, writer Joss Whedon (who went on to give us the excellent Buffy TV series) absolutely hated working with the actor who portrayed Buffy's mentor and Watcher, Merrick.
Sutherland had a habit of re-writing his lines in the movie, leading Whedon to later refer to the man as someone who was rude. Whedon never questioned Sutherland's abilities as an actor, but he still states that he hated working with him, referring to it as a bad experience. Sutherland is also why later writers ended up changing Merrick's story arc in the movie.
**
There were a lot of "creative differences" between Whedon, who wrote the original script for the movie, and everyone else involved with the Buffy film. Not only did Whedon have issues with Sutherland re-writing his role and changing the script, but there was also pressure from higher-ups during the making of the film to make it more of a comedy and less of the dark genre concept that we associate with the Buffy story from the TV series. Eventually, Whedon got fed up and walked away.
Whedon eventually returned to Buffy with the TV series, though, and, fortunately, got to create the character he initially imagined. He also worked with Dark Horse Comics on a Buffy graphic novel called The Origin, which used the original movie script that Whedon wrote.
**
Kuzui is the person responsible for a lot of the script changes in the film because she was its director. Because she directed the movie and it still has ties to the TV series, she gets an Executive Producer credited for the TV show, as well as its spinoff Angle. And Joss Whedon must see that name come up on his beloved series in every single episode, even though they disagreed fundamentally on Buffy's character and story.
**
There was the original script written by Whedon and the final version of the script that became the film. And those two scripts turned out as wildly different. When Whedon created the TV series, he used his original script (the version fans didn't get to see in the movie) as a prequel to the series fans know and love. That's why there are a lot of continuity and canon issues between the movie and the show.
So, Whedon's original script was ruined in his opinion, and vandalized by the actors, a rushed production schedule and the director. Then several years later, he got the chance to redo it - his way.
Scan about thirty years later? Whedon does the exact same thing Sutherland and Kuzui's did to him, to Snyder/Terrio and all.
30 years later - Whedon is on the opposite side of his own argument. Ironic.
Chris Terrio, the original screenwriter of Justice League is furious with how Whedon vandalized his script
"Chris Terrio is not pulling his punches anymore. For five years the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Argo kept his mouth shut about his work on the DC films Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, even as scorn from critics and fans exacerbated already-painful behind-the-scenes memories. Worst of all, he agreed with many of their complaints.
He described the films that Warner Bros. released to theaters in 2016 and 2017 as incoherent misfires, undermined by corporate meddling, poor franchise planning, and tone-deaf decisions that prioritized costly VFX sequences over coherent storytelling. Terrio believes that Zack Snyder’s director’s cuts of both are much stronger, if still imperfect movies—an overall vindication of their work together.
In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview, the screenwriter said the #SnyderCut of Justice League, recently released as a four-hour-plus event on HBO Max, righted a kind of cinematic wrong perpetrated by studio leadership that has now almost entirely moved on from Warner Bros.
(The studio did not provide any comment on his remarks.)
Terrio first joined the DC Universe to rewrite an existing Batman v Superman script because its Batman actor (the director of Argo) had qualms about the project. “I think the studio brought me in to appease Ben Affleck, because they thought, Okay, well, we have this movie star who is reluctant about doing this, so why don’t we bring in his guy?” Terrio said.
The screenwriter was frank about trying to make sense of the film’s warring heroes, turning their fight into a metaphor for a divided America, while attempting to fix elements he too found nonsensical or offensive. Studio officials then demanded that 30 minutes be removed from the theatrical cut, most likely because shorter run times mean more daily screenings, often resulting in higher box office earnings. Terrio said that act sabotaged the narrative.
“If you took 30 minutes out of Argo, as they were from Batman/Superman, it would make zero sense at all. Critics would say, ‘what a lazy screenplay,’ because the characters don’t have motivations and it’s not coherent,” Terrio said. “And I would agree with them.”
Even the title of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was a disaster, he said, that primed audiences to roll their eyes at the film well before its release.
Terrio hoped Justice League would be a better experience. He was very wrong.
After watching Joss Whedon’s version of that film, Terrio was so disgusted that he explored taking his name off the movie. Especially galling to him was the sidelining of Ray Fisher’s tragic hero, Cyborg, whose arc the actor himself had helped craft."
- Why this is so ironic?
Whedon's Issues with the Buffy Movie
One might think that having an A-list celebrity like Donald Sutherland on board a project would provide a very good opportunity for a project. For the Buffy the Vampire Slayer film, though, writer Joss Whedon (who went on to give us the excellent Buffy TV series) absolutely hated working with the actor who portrayed Buffy's mentor and Watcher, Merrick.
Sutherland had a habit of re-writing his lines in the movie, leading Whedon to later refer to the man as someone who was rude. Whedon never questioned Sutherland's abilities as an actor, but he still states that he hated working with him, referring to it as a bad experience. Sutherland is also why later writers ended up changing Merrick's story arc in the movie.
**
There were a lot of "creative differences" between Whedon, who wrote the original script for the movie, and everyone else involved with the Buffy film. Not only did Whedon have issues with Sutherland re-writing his role and changing the script, but there was also pressure from higher-ups during the making of the film to make it more of a comedy and less of the dark genre concept that we associate with the Buffy story from the TV series. Eventually, Whedon got fed up and walked away.
Whedon eventually returned to Buffy with the TV series, though, and, fortunately, got to create the character he initially imagined. He also worked with Dark Horse Comics on a Buffy graphic novel called The Origin, which used the original movie script that Whedon wrote.
**
Kuzui is the person responsible for a lot of the script changes in the film because she was its director. Because she directed the movie and it still has ties to the TV series, she gets an Executive Producer credited for the TV show, as well as its spinoff Angle. And Joss Whedon must see that name come up on his beloved series in every single episode, even though they disagreed fundamentally on Buffy's character and story.
**
There was the original script written by Whedon and the final version of the script that became the film. And those two scripts turned out as wildly different. When Whedon created the TV series, he used his original script (the version fans didn't get to see in the movie) as a prequel to the series fans know and love. That's why there are a lot of continuity and canon issues between the movie and the show.
So, Whedon's original script was ruined in his opinion, and vandalized by the actors, a rushed production schedule and the director. Then several years later, he got the chance to redo it - his way.
Scan about thirty years later? Whedon does the exact same thing Sutherland and Kuzui's did to him, to Snyder/Terrio and all.
30 years later - Whedon is on the opposite side of his own argument. Ironic.