Inspirations Behind The Snyder Cut: the Movie
Here are some Media projects that Have inspired my animated take on the story of Zack Snyder and the making of Justice League:
Way of the HouseHusband
The original idea was to do the story of Zack Snyder and The Making of Justice League as an animated explainer video on The Sean Ward Show YouTube channel. At the same time, I was mulling over the fact that I wanted to be in production on a FEature Film by now, But those plans had been de-railed by the events I described in a Previous post, and then again by Pandemic Lockdowns. I saw the trailer for the Netflix original anime series “Way of the Househusband” and immediately recognized that we could accomlish that style of animation with what we were already doing, and my mind flooded with images and whole scenes, movements and transitions. I was on my way to bed and Instead of turning right to go up the stairs, I turned left into the living room to jot down a note. As I turned, the realization came over me that The Muse was visiting, and she & I were gonna go at it all night. I was up until about 3 in the morning writing out my version of the entire story, from Zack Snyder taking the job of directing man of Steel to the release of Zack Snyder’s justice League on HBO Max.
The Social Network
In an interview with Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher about their movie version of the founding of Facebook, they talked about the challenge of adapting such recent history. This is probably my interpretation more than it's actually what they said, but my sense of it is that they declared at the outset that they are not journalists. Their loyalty is not to the facts, their loyalty is to their story. If they have to rearrange events or combine characters to make the storytelling easier, that's okay as long as the emotional truth of the story is intact. My interest in the story of the Snyder cut is totally on this same level, where I see how it suggests this epic Shakespearean drama about power and loyalty.
Remain in love
I just finished the Chris Frantz book about his life as a musician, and his experiences as a member of Talking Heads and Tom Tom club. I found his honesty about his relationship with David Byrne to be very refreshing. I could tell there was a lot of love there, but the facts are the facts. One of the things that I'm finding a challenge is how the story requires that I portray certain people in an unflattering light. And because the story is based on things that actually happened, there is a level on which… it's like when someone got too drunk and embarrassed their self at my wedding. I told some friends about it because it was funny. But one of those people later used that against the person the story was about. And I felt like that was a betrayal of me, and my trust. It wasn't his story to tell, let alone to use as a weapon against the person. But on the other Hand...
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
What Tarantino did on Inglorious Basterds was inspired, but the story of Rick dalton and Cliff Booth is revelatory. At the end of the day he’s not telling the story of what happened in Hollywood, 1969. He’s telling the story of what happens in his imaginary alternate universe version of Hollywood 1969. Re-watching Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the thing that gave me permission, in a sense, to tell my alternate universe version of the story behind Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
