Are you ready for the conversation to begin about the Snyder Cut of the Snyder Cut of the Snyder Cut of Rebel Moon? Because we’re about to head back into those waters! Earlier this year, Zack Snyder released two parts of an epic science-fiction saga titled Rebel Moon. The films took inspiration for Kurosawa, as well as Star Wars (which also borrowed heavily from Kurosawa), as it told the story of the farming planet of Veldt hiring mercenaries to push back against the dominant forces of The Imperium. Even before Rebel Moon arrived in the Netflix platform, Snyder made it clear that he had Director’s Cuts of both Rebel Moon films, which are now going to be made available to those with a Netflix subscription beginning on August 2. But now Snyder says he even trimmed the Director’s Cuts… with good reason.
As part of his deal with Netflix, Zack Snyder was able to deliver two versions of the Rebel Moon story, one that was PG-13 and arguably more commercial. And the other that was the totality of Snyder’s vision for the epic story. The director’s cuts of Rebel Moon would be sexier, more violent, but also expand on several of the characters in the “theatrical” cut – which didn’t get that much of a theatrical release, but I digress. However, while appearing on CinemaBlend’s official ReelBlend podcast, Snyder teased an NC-17 version of Rebel Moon that had to be trimmed even more. Release the Snyder Cut of the Snyder Cut!
Snyder was discussing a scene involving the sinister Admiral Noble (Ed Skrein) that occurs early in the director’s cut of Rebel Moon: Part One. It’s a vicious scene during which Noble forces Aris (Sky Yang) to pull off a dastardly act to prove his alliance to the Motherworld. And when discussing the editing of that scene, Snyder revealed to us:
There were a couple cuts I had to make to (an Ed Skrein) sequence to get it to the R rating from the NC-17. Because it was NC-17 for quite a while, and then we had to really … A few less whacks (to the head), a little less brains that he dug out. (That version is) somewhere. But no – I did have a conversation with Netflix about whether or not that was a possibility. And they were like, ‘We really want it to be R.’ And I was like, ‘All right. That's fair. I did say I would give you an R-rated cut.’ … I asked Netflix if they were cool with the NC-17, and they were like, ‘No, we're not cool.’ Because I had agreed, Debbie (Snyder) was like, ‘You did agree that it would be R-rated.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. A deal's a deal.’
Why do studios and streamers insist on filtering Zack Snyder? Let the man cook! When he delivers the Director’s Cut of his purest vision, it always turns out to be the best possible telling of the story in question, from the four-hour Snyder Cut of his lost Justice League movie, to the Ultimate Edition of his controversial Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. I also don’t really understand the need for a streaming service to concern itself with ratings. But Snyder did say that Netflix, per their conversations, was concerned about having a more commercial version of the Rebel Moon story, as he told ReelBlend:
There was a conversation around the rating and the runtime, where they felt like we could make a slightly more commercial version of this movie if we kept the rating to PG 13, and the runtime to right around two hours. That was a conversation. They felt like, based on their data, that that would be more viewable. And so I was like, ‘Okay.’ That was part of the negotiation. I had definitely written an R-rated movie. So it was a conversation. Like, ‘Hey, if we say yes, is there a PG-13 version of this movie?’ And I was like, ‘Absolutely.’ We were in a negotiation, and we came up with this idea of having these director's cuts in addition to the PG-13 (version). Because I absolutely felt like the movie that I wrote and the movie that I wanted to make, of course, is this longer R-rated movie that you'll see.
If Zack Snyder gets his way, and he continues to draw in audiences with Rebel Moon, there’s a chance that a third movie in the franchise reaches Netflix. At the same time, he’s juggling other projects in his Army of the Dead series, while also tending to other projects that he teased. We’ll have more with Snyder once the full conversation lands on ReelBlend.
