Zack Snyder and director's cuts go hand in hand, though there's one film in particular that the director still feels he has unfinished business with.
We sat down with Snyder to talk all things Rebel Moon, but, naturally, our conversation touched on Snyder's other projects, too, including the director's cut of Sucker Punch. Snyder has said multiple times over the years that he'd like to release an alternate version of the movie – and we asked why.
"The compromises we made on the PG-13 version of that movie, and just really mashing it down to the lowest common denominator, not to be rude – I think that the movie suffers from not having this full exploration," Snyder explains. "Because I wrote it in response – it really is a critique, it was at the time for me, of genre, the genre experience. Because I was kind of new to genre. I didn't know. I did Dawn of the Dead, 300, Watchmen, and now I had this – and Sucker Punch was like the weirdo movie that I just felt like I needed to [make about] sort of my experience with fandom, and I found myself in the heart of genre; I didn't set out to be a genre filmmaker, it just happened."
Sucker Punch stars Emily Browning as a young woman, known as Babydoll, who is institutionalized by her abusive stepfather following the death of her mother. Babydoll deals with her new life – and plans to flee the institution – by escaping into several layers of alternate realities, which leads to fantastical dream sequences.
"And so, my analysis of genre was what Sucker Punch kind of became," Snyder continues. "And I thought that no one really got that when I released the movie. It was shocking to me how – which I think I've carried throughout my career, now, is this – [it was] shocking to me on how misunderstood the movie was. I thought it was super obvious, but I guess it wasn't.
"What I envisioned originally for the film, it was much more on the nose about that it was really, super deconstructivist of genre," he adds. "And so, yeah, I'd love to get at that, and kind of give everyone a little bit more of that, that we filmed, it just never made it in the movie."
While it remains to be seen if the Snyder Cut of Sucker Punch will ever see the light of day, there are extended versions of Rebel Moon Parts One and Two arriving on Netflix soon. Plus, there's the standard version of Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver, which lands on April 19.
In the meantime, fill out your watchlist with our guide to the best Netflix movies streaming now – and look out for more Rebel Moon coverage coming soon to 12DOVE and the Inside Total Film podcast.
