Seven years on and filmmaker David Ayer is still somewhat hung up on the way his 2016 DC Comics adaptation “Suicide Squad” was gutted by the studio.
In recent times Ayer has been holding onto hope his director’s cut will get a release someday, even recently hinting that DC Studios boss James Gunn told him that the Ayer Cut “would have its time to be shared” sometime in the future.
Ayer has long said the studio changed the film’s entire tone from his original concept and that his version is not an early Assembly Cut but a ‘fully mature edit’ with no radio music drops, traditional character arcs, a quite different third act and more.
Ayer recently appeared on The Real Ones podcast with Jon Bernthal where he was asked about his biggest Hollywood heartbreak. He explains:
“Hollywood, I tell people, is like watching someone you love get f—– by someone you hate. The big one is ‘Suicide Squad.’ That s— broke me….
Come right off ‘Fury,’ right? I had the town in my hand – could’ve done anything, and I did do anything. And [I] go on this journey with [‘Suicide Squad’]. And the same thing – authentic, truthful, let’s do all the rehearsal, let’s really get in each other’s souls. Let’s create this amazing, collaborative thing, right?
Then ‘Deadpool’ opened, right? And they never tested ‘Batman v. Superman,’ so they were expecting a different result, and then they got hammered by all the critics. Then it’s like, ‘Okay, we’re going to turn David Ayer’s dark, soulful movie into a f—- comedy now.'”
To this day, Ayer continues to use social media to advocate for the release of the ‘Ayer Cut’ of “Suicide Squad”. Despite the poor critical reception, the film raked in $747 million worldwide.
