There’s rarely just one version of a Zack Snyder film. His Watchmen adaptation arrived in various cuts – theatrical, director’s, ultimate. Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice has its Ultimate Edition. The Snyder Cut campaign brought the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, while his Rebel Moon films at Netflix will later receive extended, all-out, R-rated versions too. And while his 2011 original fantasy-actioner Sucker Punch technically has an extended edition already, the filmmaker has unfinished business with that film – with something much closer to a full-on director’s cut in mind.
In a major new Empire interview, Zack Snyder answered your reader questions, on movies from across his career (and plenty of other topics aside). And when asked what, if anything, he’d want to change about one of his movies, he gave a broader answer: there’s one movie he actively wants to change in a bigger way. “The only movie I would change is Sucker Punch, because it never really got finished correctly,” he tells Empire. “Even the director’s cut is not really the correct cut. It’s really just an extended version. If I had the chance, I would fix that movie.” What exactly that ‘fix’ would involve remains to be seen, but the film – revolving around a group of women, led by Emily Browning’s Babydoll, trying to survive within a sadistic institution by mentally escaping into fantastical worlds – wasn’t well received on release.
Whatever Snyder has in store for Sucker Punch, he has what he needs to complete his cut – he just needs permission (and resources) to do it. “I have the footage already shot: they just have to let me put it together,” he says. “We ask every now and then. We have to ask again. I think there has to be a window when no-one’s got the movie.” Given the success of previous fan movements, we may see Zack Snyder’s new-and-improved Sucker Punch one day. “If they want to start a campaign, that’s alright,” he says. Your move, Babydoll…
Read Empire’s full reader questions interview with Zack Snyder in The Acolyte issue – on sale Thursday 11 April. Order a copy online here. Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver comes to Netflix on 19 April.