The Justice League might have been released a few years back, but to this day is still a memorable experience for most of the people who witnessed it in cinemas. Though the whole movie was the center of attention because of the “lacking” elements of the film, it was still a hit at the box office with the fans giving it two thumbs up and a salute.
Though what some eagle-eyed viewers might remember is a certain oddity when they witnessed Henry Cavill’s Superman in a couple of scenes in the film, where the Kryptonian’s upper lip seems to be…. Smudged?
This was a fiasco that occurred when the re-shoots of the Justice League were taking place, and Cavill literally had to juggle between the two worlds simultaneously. Though this is now a thing in the rear-view mirror, some people just can’t let go of the past.
The “Hairy” Problem
During the time when Warner Bros. had to regretfully discard Zack Snyder’s direction of the Justice League and Joss Whedon had to take over its reins, there were a lot of significant changes to be made in order to streamline the production to Whedon’s vision, which also meant re-shooting some of the scenes.
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Henry Cavill, who played Superman for the DCEU was out working for Paramount Studios for his then-upcoming film Mission Impossible 6 when he was called for the re-shooting of Justice League. Cavill was fine with taking the two projects at the same time, but there was a problem.
See, where Superman was a baby-faced, clean-shaven hunk of a man, Cavill was also playing a gentleman with a thick mustache in Mission Impossible 6. This created a problem as both studios struggled to find a solution to this “hairy” problem. During a recent Reddit A.M.A. with an anonymous DC visual-effects artist, who explained how Paramount, the “ridiculously petty” studio behind Cavill’s Mission: Impossible 6 was to blame for the facial hair fiasco.
The “Ridiculously Petty” Solution
According to the artist, Paramount refused to bend about Cavill keeping his mustache—even though, the artist argued, it’s easier to add facial hair in post-production than it is to remove it. Even after the VFX team demonstrated that facial hair can be added back in post-production edits and even when Warner Bros. went so far as to fund the production costs of Cavill’s facial hair in Mission Impossible 6, Paramount Studios still said no.
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So, the team had no choice but to use CGI during the shoots. Although the artist said that their team worked on a lot of Cavill’s facial reconstruction, they stopped short of taking the blame for the film’s awkward opening shot of Superman, in which Cavill’s face is clearly… off.
“I’m not sure which other studio did that opening shot on the cell phone but it’s dreadful,” the artist wrote. “It shouldn’t have been approved internally let alone gone all the way to make it into the film. That shocked me a bit. We were all looking at each other when the film started like ‘wtf is this?!’”
But alas, what’s done is done. Even though this was noticed by many, viewers still enjoyed the film as it was. Though it’s up to an individual to conclude who was petty and who was just, it nonetheless tells us about how important facial hair is to a man.
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Source: VanityFair
