Ahhhh, the dreaded "reshoot" story. Almost every major studio film undergoes reshoots, but when it happens to a comic book movie or franchise it's a sign of disaster. DC Films knows this intimately by now. Suicide Squad was raked over the coals for reshoots, and the result was a story that felt completely disjointed and sloppy, even though it ultimately did well at the box office. They managed to avoid it with Wonder Woman, but...well, Justice League isn't getting off so lucky.
We already knew Joss Whedon had stepped in to do some post-production work on the film while Zack Snyder is away grieving his daughter's death. This didn't seem like a big deal at first, but according to Batman On Film, who tend to have okay sources on these things, say Whedon's reshoots are "significant" and beyond the normal order of things. Uh oh...
I have been told by a 100% vetted and more-than-reliable source that re-shoots on JUSTICE LEAGUE have commenced in London under the helm of Joss Whedon and that they will be “significant.” So much so, that these reshoots are expected to take place through June and July, and maybe into August. They are NOT your “standard” pick-ups….
….Also, my source tells me that despite how this might look, he’s pretty optimistic that these re-shoots (though, I don’t know if that’s the correct noun – “additional photography” is probably more appropriate) are a positive in terms of making the best film possible.
So they try to put a positive spin on it at the end which is a good sign. Maybe that's where Forbes, who chimed in on the issue a few days later, pickup with their info which basically says that the situation is perfectly fine. Nothing to see here.
...in early 2017 after principal photography was completed, Zack Snyder began editing the film together and decided he needed some additional scenes. Joss Whedon was contacted about writing the scenes, and agreed to do it. These are new scenes, and they comprise the bulk of filming being done this Summer. Due to their heartbreaking family tragedy, the Snyders had to step away from Justice League, and Whedon was asked to step in to film the extra scenes he wrote and to do a final edit on the film.
In addition to the new scenes he’s filming, Whedon will also do some pickups and reshoots typical of any film of this size — it is tiring to have to constantly point out that every film like this includes scheduling for presumed reshoots that inevitably become necessary after principal photography ends, and every time it happens the press and fans react like it’s a major surprise or signals some problem when it doesn’t. It almost always happens, and there are almost always folks who misinterpret it or who say it’s more extensive and meaningful than it necessarily is….
….The expected time frame for the additional photography is about eight weeks or less, and what I heard was closer to perhaps seven weeks — so, not up to three months, but somewhat close at least to the portion of the rumors saying “two months” of filming (not all reshoots, though).
I think the main thing that I take away from this is the vast difference in style from Snyder to Whedon. A small amount of reshoots, and maybe some minor scriptwork, we may not notice but if it's a lot, then the change in tone is going to be significant. That said, Justice League is still on a track to open November 17th, and unless that changes I'm not going to sweat this too much.
