Earlier this month, it was confirmed that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will get an R-rated Ultimate Edition on home video later this year, with director Zack Snyder teasing that there will be plenty of additional material that was cut from the theatrical version, including an Easter Egg that helps set up Justice League Part 1. Comic Book Movie discovered that the Ultimate Edition is already available for pre-order on Amazon, which lists a July 16 release date. The Blu-ray combo pack will cost $35.99 and include both the theatrical cut and the extended edition, but the site also has artwork for the Amazon collector's editions, which will cost $129.99. There are two different versions of the collector's editions, one featuring a collectible statue of Batman and the other with a Superman statue.
Earlier today, Zack Snyder revealed that Jimmy Olsen is actually in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, played by Michael Cassidy, but he isn't on screen for very long. The character appears in a scene with Lois Lane (Amy Adams) on an assignment in Africa, but he is quickly outed as a CIA plant, and killed by a gunshot to the head. PEeCDjjmzYv9hl||Zack Snyder} says fans will get to see more of Jimmy in the Ultimate Edition, where he actually introduces himself. And in a new interview with Collider, the director shed some more light on this R-rated cut. Here's what he had to say about the kinds of scenes that fans will get to see.
"We call it the Ultimate Cut because to me it's a deeper dive into that world and there are storylines in there that get fleshed out by the longer version... I would say that we didn't really take out much of the Superman/Batman story because I felt like, you know that's kind of the movie, but there was some sort of interstitial stuff that surrounds the story, that kind of finishes some of the ideas that we trimmed back, and I think that's what you get. There's a little bit of action, there's a little bit of violence that we trimmed out for the MPAA that we put back. The Batman warehouse rescue, there's a couple shots of Doomsday that were too intense. Then there's a little bit longer ending, sort of the ending sequence, and the opening of the movie, the North Africa sequence is really much different."
Since the movie runs a whopping 151 minutes long, it's not that surprising that a lot of footage was cut from the movie, and we recently learned that Jena Malone's mysterious character, rumored to be Barbara Gordon, a.k.a. Batgirl, was completely cut from the movie. That unconfirmed report claimed that her character may surface in the Ultimate Edition, but that hasn't been confirmed either. When asked why all of this footage was cut from the theatrical version, Zack Snyder had this to say.
"It was in there until very recently, so all of it's finished. It was really just a function of time, to be honest. Because the movie's long now, long-ish-I don't think it's long, but when you get over two and a half hours the studio starts getting nervous. I'm not James Cameron who's like 'No it's three hours, suck it!,' which is cool by the way. I just wanted to try and get it to a length that is work-able."
Some of the negative reviews of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice mentioned several plot points that were construed as quite confusing, so it's possible that the director's cut will add some clarity to the story. Zack Snyder previously released an R-rated director's cut for his 2009 movie Watchmen, after the studio released the PG-13 version theatrically. The director even spoke about his experiences in making Watchmen, and how the TV version differs from both the theatrical version and his R-rated director's cut.
"If you watch Watchmen on TNT or whatever, the TV cut, it's the movie, it's in there, if you watch it you're like, 'Oh okay, I get it,' but all the edges get knocked off of it by the nature of putting something that's kind of that rough on TV. In a weird way, the theatrical cut is a step up from that, and then the director's cut [of Watchmen] is really where it's at, in my opinion. With a movie like that where I was in a, I don't wanna say I was in a battle with the studio but I was probably more headstrong on that movie because the material was so important to me. And then they promised me that they would make this director's cut and that was where the deal was made, I was like, 'Okay, I'll get you [the time you want].' And also a lot of the time of that movie was dictated by IMAX because it was an IMAX release and there was no digital IMAX, it was all prints. That movie, if there's humidity in the projection booth the film will fall off."
It isn't known exactly how much extra footage will be included in the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition, but we'll be sure to keep you posted as soon as we have more details. In the meantime, take a look at the artwork below, and stay tuned for more on the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition. Will you be picking this up for yourself on July 16?
