David Ayer Has One Last Request From Warner Bros. For His Suicide Squad Cut
Although a groundswell of support led to the eventual release of "Zack Snyder's Justice League" — aka "The Snyder Cut" — hopes for Warner Bros. releasing director David Ayer's version of "Suicide Squad" nearly eight years after its release seem to be all but dashed.
While making the interview rounds for his new action thriller "The Beekeeper," Ayer confirmed he has given up on his "Suicide Squad" cut when asked about the status of a potential release of an updated version of the film. Released in 2016, "Suicide Squad" — which features a stable of DC's most notable villains and antiheroes including Joker (Jared Leto), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), and Deadshot (Will Smith) — was blasted by critics and moviegoers in equal measure.
Although it's unlikely the Ayer cut of "Suicide Squad" will ever see the light of day, the director told Variety that if he gets one final request granted by Warner Bros., he would like to screen his cut of the film for all of the people who participated in making it. "I would love a 'last rites' screening," Ayer said. "A funeral screening, you know, even just bringing the cast and crew together to show them what they actually made. That would be fair for everyone."
The release of the Ayer cut seemed to be on track
Word from David Ayer about the demise of "Suicide Squad" and his hope for a funeral screening seems somewhat surprising, especially given a hopeful post by the director on X, formerly known as Twitter, in August 2023. In the post, Ayer stressed the better quality of his director's cut over the original. But he also seemed to understand how pursuing the release of the revamped film may not be a priority for DC Studios co-head James Gunn, who has rebooted the old DC Extended Universe and is starting anew with the DC Universe.
"All I know is my unseen film plays much better than the studio release," Ayer said in the post. "The interest in my cut being shown seems real and organic. And Gunn told me it would have [its] time to be shared. He absolutely deserves to launch to launch his DC universe without more drama about old projects."
If Gunn's alleged promise doesn't come to fruition and Ayer gets his wish for a private screening of "Suicide Squad," it wouldn't be unprecedented. After the studio shocked the filmmakers — if not the entire movie industry — by canceling the release of "Batgirl," it was reportedly going to be screened by Warner Bros. for the movie's cast and crew.
Ayer says he's still being attacked for Suicide Squad
Ayer is no doubt hurt by not having the opportunity to release his cut of "Suicide Squad," and told Variety that being stymied in his efforts has been the most difficult professional challenge he's faced. He added that, while he's not afraid to boast about the superior nature of his cut of "Suicide Squad," he's been wounded by seeing a film that he poured a lot into both personally and emotionally snatched from his hands and retooled by corporate studio executives.
On top of that, Ayer said people keep leveling criticisms against him for releasing "Suicide Squad" in 2016, even though it didn't represent his true vision. "Every time a new movie comes out in that space it starts up again," Ayer told Variety. "I get attacked for something that I didn't do. It's pretty unjust, and at the end of the day, at this point, I get it, it's corporate America. It's corporate IP. You know these are multi-billion dollar companies, but I think ripping the guts out of a filmmaker like that is pretty unfair."
Apart from the advent of the new DC Universe by Gunn — who ironically wrote and directed the 2021 semi-sequel "The Suicide Squad" — Ayer has studio brass standing in his way. Warner Bros. reportedly regrets releasing "Zack Snyder's Justice League," because it only empowered Snyder fans who were vocal about getting to see the film. The studio seems determined to not let that happen again.