HBO Max Boss Hints at Shocking Cost of ‘Justice League’ Snyder Cut: “I Wish It Was Just $30 Million”

HBO Max thrilled Justice League fans last week when the streaming service revealed they’ll be finally releasing the long rumored Snyder Cut, Zack Snyder‘s director’s cut of the film, in 2021. And while Warner Media didn’t include many details about the upcoming release in their initial announcement, the project is rumored to be a costly undertaking — sources told The Hollywood Reporter that it could cost between $20 and $30 million. Now, Head of HBO Max Bob Greenblatt is hinting at just how expensive the Snyder Cut really is, and it’s even more than initially reported.

In an appearance on the Recode Media podcast yesterday (May 25), Greenblatt explained to host Peter Kafka how HBO Max is currently developing the Snyder Cut, because “it does not exist.”

“Zack is actually building it,” Greenblatt explained. “It’s complex, including … new effects shots, and you know, it’s a radical rethinking of that movie. It’s complicated and wildly expensive, which is of course a number I won’t quote.”

When Kafka dropped his own numbers, saying, “I’ve seen $20 million and $30 million, so I’m assuming it’s around that,” Greenblatt seemingly confirmed that the Synder Cut cost even more.

“Yeah, I’ll just say I wish it was just $30 million,” he replied. “I’ll stop there, but it’s an enormous undertaking and very complex.”

Greenblatt explained that the process of securing the Snyder Cut was lengthy and complicated, and included visits with unions and re-evaluating how the new version of Justice League on HBO Max would be defined. “There’s lots of complexity that the fan doesn’t know about, and we weren’t just sitting around going, ‘Let’s not talk to those fans for as long as we can. Let’s drive them crazy,'” he said. “We were actually spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to do this and there’s many, many hurdles to jump over.”

The HBO Max exec was adamant that they hadn’t been keeping the Snyder Cut announcement a secret. Although discussions began about it last fall, he said, Warner Media only confirmed the rumors once they were entirely sure it could be developed on their new streaming platform. “Once we saw that we could do it all and figured out the right economics, which was literally within the last week, we said, ‘All right, let’s get this news out there,” Greenblatt said. “We were trying very hard to announce it before the launch because we knew it would be very well-received.”

The original Justice League was first released in 2017. Snyder was originally attached to the film as director back in 2014, but he left the project after the death of his daughter not long after principal photography wrapped. Joss Whedon then signed on to the film to oversee post-production. Fans started the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut movement after Justice League‘s theatrical release, which critics widely panned.

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