Warner Bros. and DC are spending big money to ensure that ”Justice League" builds on the creative success of ”Wonder Woman" instead of serving up a ”Suicide Squad"-style disappointment.
The studio is spending approximately $25 million on extensive reshoots that have dragged on for roughly two months in London and Los Angeles, according to multiple insiders. Like ”The Avengers," ”Justice League" centers on a group of superheroes who band together to save the world. The ensemble nature of the comic book movie, and the fact that its cast includes several of the most in-demand actors working in Hollywood today, is creating scheduling headaches that has prolonged the shooting.
It's standard for big Hollywood movies to schedule a few weeks of pick-up work, but the cost and time allotted to the work on ”Justice League" is raising some eyebrows. Reshoots, or additional photography to use the preferred studio nomenclature, traditionally cost between $6 million to $10 million, and rarely have to juggle so many competing schedules. They typically last a week or two.
Though stars like Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot, who play Batman and Wonder Woman, aren't working on any other projects at the moment, enabling them to be on call for the filming, other cast members such as Ezra Miller and Henry Cavill have been scrambling to accommodate the additional photography.
Miller is reprising his ”Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" role in the film's sequel, which started filming earlier this summer. Sources indicate that since that is also a Warner Bros. property, scheduling has been easier. The studio has gone out of its way to make him available, but his growing role in the world of wizarding series has made it difficult for him to suit up as the Flash on the same days that other co-stars are available.
Cavill's issues are even more thorny. ”Justice League's" Man of Steel had expected to be able to finish shooting the sixth ”Mission: Impossible" film before needing to don Superman's spandex again. That has not been the case, however, as the new scenes that are being shot have required him to jump back and forth from each production. Because of this, a mustache he grew for his character in the ”Mission Impossible" sequel will have to be digitally removed in post-production. Paramount, which is distributing the ”Mission: Impossible" sequel, would not allow Cavill to shave the facial hair while production was taking place.
Then there is the question of crediting. Joss Whedon has now spent months overseeing the project, but he will not recieve a co-directing credit, according to an insider. Whedon stepped in to handle the reshoots and finish the film this spring after director Zack Snyder publicly excused himself from the project, following his daughter's suicide in March. Whedon won't just be rewarded with a fat paycheck. He may get a producing credit or a screenplay credit. There's some precedent. Tony Gilroy, who stepped in for director Gareth Edwards to oversee reshoots for ”Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," earned a screenwriting credit.
