Oscar-winning writer Chris Terrio was working on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker when he saw, for the first and only time, a film attributed to him: 2017 Justice League, directed by Joss Whedon. “I drove to the studio and sat and watched it a few weeks before the release,” Terrio said. “I immediately called my lawyer and said, ‘I want to take my name off the movie.'”
The lawyer contacted Warner but the request was not honored as the film was already on lock and was preparing for distribution. Terrio was then not invited to the premiere and has decided that he will not be speaking about the film publicly, so far with Vanity Fair.
Terrio, who won an Oscar for Argo, and that not only written Justice League But Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice also spoke about the experience of writing these movies with Vanity Fair. In the interview, he explains in detail how Warner Bros. cut 30 minutes from his film “Batman / Superman” (he explains that he did not find the title Dawn of Justice and, in fact, doesn’t know who did it), which practically spoiled any nuance he was looking for characters and perhaps critically condemned him. This situation then sunk down Justice League, where he did his best to write a screenplay more in line with what the leaders wanted. It all fell apart, however, when Zack Snyder left production and Joss Whedon came on.
“I had no idea how much the film was going to be changed – or vandalized, in my opinion,” Terrio said. “It became clear when I spoke to various actors that this was a complete dismantling of what existed before. I didn’t hear anyone say it was a pleasant experience.
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Terrio says Justice League by Zack Snyder, who was recently released on HBO Max, is an excellent representation of the film that he and Snyder decided to make. He has nothing bad to say about Snyder but admits that even when Snyder was on board, the movie wasn’t a walk in the park.
“The Wonder woman the script wasn’t even finished when I wrote Justice League, ” Terrio said. “So I had no basis for writing Wonder Woman other than Batman / Superman. Themyscira didn’t even exist. I never showed anything on the page for it. I didn’t know if people could talk underwater. This was something I had to ask, as I wasn’t sure if I could do underwater scenes with Aquaman and the Atlanteans. Everything was just starting from scratch because there hadn’t been [solo] character films. “
He continued, “So Justice League necessary to establish three of the characters; it was necessary to create a long-game mythology for the DC universe. Superman had to be resurrected because he was dead at the end of the last movie. I just don’t know how you could do all of this in less than two hours. Maybe the 2017 release proved you can’t. All this does not even enter into his experience on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, including studio warrants that Batman marks people with a bat symbol, and an original ending where Batman did exactly that Lex Luthor, whom Terrio fought.
“This ending was a point that I explicitly went to the mat with the studio over and over again,” he said. “I argued that Batman couldn’t end the film by continuing this behavior, which amounted to torture, because then the film approved of what he had done.”
Suffice it to say, what fans see onscreen in Snyder’s films are only half the story. The other half took place in boardrooms. Head toward Vanity Fair to learn more about the rewarding interview.
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