The composer was chosen by Joss Whedon to replace Junkie XL.
During film of Justice League in May 2017, director Zack Snyder – who was following up his own Man Of Steel and Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice – stepped away from the project following the death of his daughter.
Joss Whedon was subsequently hired to replace him and oversee post-production and the filming of additional scenes, but on the final product, Snyder retains a sole directing credit, with Whedon as a co-writer on the film.
After the film was released, it was met with middling reviews (45% on Metacritic), and with an estimated budget of $300 million and a worldwide box office of $657 million, it remains the highest-grossing movie to still be a box office bomb.
In recent weeks and months, there has been a strong support online for #ReleaseTheSnyderCut, with fans believing that there is much better original vision of Justice League in existence, one that Warner Brothers won’t release, perhaps in light of the new direction that they are taking the DC Universe with Aquaman, Wonder Woman 1984, Birds Of Prey, Joker, and The Batman.
A re-release of any other version of Justice League may muddy the waters even more than they already are, but this hasn’t stopped the stars of Justice League to throw their support behind the campaign:
#ReleaseTheSnyderCut pic.twitter.com/wssMmlPqEK
— Gal Gadot (@GalGadot) November 17, 2019
— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) November 17, 2019
https://twitter.com/rehsifyar/status/1196172064899653638?s=20
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4n6eBKAQqL/?utm_source=ig_web_options_share_sheet
One of the changes that Whedon did implement was a change in composer, as Junkie XL (who had previously scored co-scored Batman V Superman with Hans Zimmer) was replaced by Danny Elfman (who knows his way around scoring superhero movies: Batman, Batman Returns, Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Hellboy 2, Spider-Man 2).
When JOE had the opportunity to chat to Elfman ahead of his visit to Ireland to perform Nightmare Before Christmas live in the 3Arena (full details on that here), we asked him on his take on the situation:
“Well, the thing is, he never finished it. So, I don’t know quite how they’d do that. He had a tremendous tragedy, which forced him to not finish the film.
“So, it wasn’t like… I don’t quite understand this, because it wasn’t like he was fired, and that there is a Director’s Cut that is a finished movie and that the studio fired him and then hired Joss.
“When Joss came on the film, he stepped in with only a few days notice, to pick up the helm because of this terrible, terrible tragedy that happened.
“So it is kind of a unique situation. I mean, there is definitely other movies where the director was fired, and a studio radically changed the movie because they didn’t like it. And as a fan, you go ‘I wonder what the director did, before the studio changed the movie.’ But I’m not really aware of how that dynamic would really apply here.”
You can listen to our full conversation with Elfman below, including the latest word on Beetlejuice 2, and the revelation that The Simpsons may well be heading into its final year:
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
