Pick a Zack Snyder movie at random and you’re likely to find legions of the director’s fans claiming that the theatrical cut doesn’t represent the film‘s true brilliance. From his extended take on “Watchmen” to the endlessly discussed “Snyder Cut” of “Justice League” that Warner Bros. allowed him to complete after years of online fan pressure, the director is arguably more loved for his director’s cuts than the movies that actually play in theaters.
But while Snyder’s passionate fan base has afforded him the freedom to release his preferred versions of most of his films at this point, there’s still one that he’d like another crack at. In a new interview with Empire, Snyder explained that he still isn’t satisfied with how his critically maligned 2011 blockbuster “Sucker Punch” turned out and hopes to release another version someday.
“The only movie I would change is ‘Sucker Punch,’ because it never really got finished correctly,” Snyder said. “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.”
The film — which stars Emily Browning as an asylum patient who is scheduled to be lobotomized but escapes into an alternate reality in which her fellow patients are sex slaves trying to flee a world of monsters — was dismissed by many as poorly crafted at best and misogynistic at worst. But Snyder explained that he believes the film could be salvaged without shooting any additional footage.
Unfortunately, the director explained that legal issues over the film’s rights have prevented him from reworking it. That said, he’s still holding out hope that he’ll have another opportunity to re-cut it into something that better suits his vision.
“I have the footage already shot: they just have to let me put it together,” he said. “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.”