Big studio films can sometimes be victim to conflicting ambitions, since both creatives and industry executives are in the mix. This may have been the case for David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, which many consider to be a misfire despite its $747 million worldwide earnings. As fans move on the hype train for James Gunn’s upcoming take with The Suicide Squad, the director of the original movie is taking zero bad-mouthing. Check out Ayer’s recent tweet:
Indiewire Senior Film Critic David Ehrlich got a bit of attention from the Suicide Squad director when he commented on the online discourse for James Gunn’s newly released casting information for The Suicide Squad. He called it a “sequel to some dumb piece of shit” that a majority of the public disliked. Ayer then quote tweeted Ehrlich’s thoughts, defending a movie he and a large cast and crew dedicated years to producing.
After the tweet received a ton of attention, the journalist then cleared up his words by explaining he meant to express “frustration” for the “endless franchise hype parade” that continues no matter previous disappointments, deterring the attention away from more original films. He sent his “apologies” to the director for it being taken as a personal attack. Ayer continued the conversation with these words:
Apology accepted? Once things were cleared up, the filmmaker showed his frustration with the movie being changed from his original vision, leading to a less satisfying introduction to the Task Force X than he had intended for audiences. Even so, he showed his continued support for James Gunn taking over the franchise, also with this:
It could not have been easy for the director to watch his film be met with the harsh criticism it did. It apparently wasn’t the movie he had imagined it would when he signed on, and due to its $175 million production budget (before marketing costs), he may not have had complete creative control over the final product. He touches on this in these recent tweets, explaining how Hollywood is an industry at the end of the day.
Some apparent changes to David Ayer’s Suicide Squad included a ton being cut from Jared Leto’s performance as Joker. With James Gunn continuing the franchise, he will call upon some characters introduced in Ayer’s movie, but Leto’s Joker is not one of them.
The Suicide Squad will see the return of Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn (after Birds of Prey), Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller, Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag, and Jai Courtney’s Captain Boomerang, along with a packed new cast including Idris Elba, Taika Waititi, Nathan Fillion, Michael Rooker, and Peter Capaldi. The movie will soon go into production in Atlanta, Georgia and will be released in August 2021.