Director’s cuts are an interesting thing. Often serving as incentive for audiences to revisit a movie on home video, they usually don’t provide a ton extra beyond the theatrical cut or drastically alter the effect of a film. That cannot be said for the films of Zack Snyder, whose director’s cuts are often much longer and can change how the film is viewed. For fans of his work, Zack Snyder will soon be screening some of his director’s cuts in a three-day event.
The ArtCenter in Pasadena, California will be hosting “Zack Snyder: The Director’s Cuts,” a three-day event that will feature special screenings of the director’s cuts of Dawn of the Dead, Watchmen and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - The Ultimate Edition. The films will be screened on March 22, 23 and 24, respectively, and each screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Zack Snyder himself, special guests from the films’ cast and crew, and ArtCenter alumnus.
Those wishing to attend the event can purchase three-day passes or single-day tickets through the ArtCenter website, all of which include snacks and beverages in the ticket price.
This is an exciting proposition for film fans and Zack Snyder fans specifically to watch the director’s films in the way that he intended them, unconstrained by rating or multiplex-friendly runtimes. With Zack Snyder there to discuss the films with the audience, it should give attendees greater insight into his goals with each film and his methodology in making them.
However, many of you have probably already noted to yourself that this event has one glaring omission, perhaps the most talked about director’s cut in film history and certainly in recent memory, the so-called Snyder Cut of Justice League. Alas, that much-requested look at Zack Snyder’s uncompromised vision of what that 2017 film was going to be before Snyder left and Joss Whedon came on to retool the movie will remain unseen, at least at this event.
That said, this three-day event will have post-screening Q&As and people are almost definitely going to ask him about Justice League. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if those attending the Dawn of the Dead or Watchmen screenings jumped ahead to the Justice League questions. Especially in the post-Batman v Superman Q&A, there are bound to be questions about how Zack Snyder would have followed-up that film and about his supposed 5-film arc that began with Man of Steel.
There are no guarantees, of course, and Zack Snyder may want to avoid having to talk too much about that subject, but perhaps he will share some thoughts on it that we haven’t heard before that paint a more complete picture of what might have been had Justice League and the DCEU remained under his stewardship.
It will also be interesting to hear him discuss Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, for which the Ultimate Edition director’s cut is considered by some to be far superior to the theatrical version. It’s also notable that the Watchmen version being screened looks like it will be the director’s cut and not the Ultimate Cut, which incorporates even more of that legendary graphic novel’s content. Maybe Snyder will even give attendees his thoughts on HBO doing a Watchmen TV series.
Next up for Zack Snyder in his first film since Justice League, is Army of the Dead, a new zombie movie for Netflix.
Check out our 2019 release schedule to keep track of all the big movies headed to theaters this year and stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all your movie news.
