Zack Snyder, on multiple occasions, has made it clear that his films are not for everyone. The man who directed DC’s Man of Steel (2013) and Batman v Superman (2016) is known for his intricacies with comic book adaptations that a majority of his audience can’t often relate to.
Directors who put their sweat and blood into projects can put a lot at stake to get their films to the silver screens, but that isn’t the case with Zack Snyder. As much as he has been passionate about his take on the superhero genre, there was one particular film he wanted “shelved.”
In an interview with The New York Times, the director got candid about the film – Watchmen (2009) and confessed a bizarre reason why he wanted that.
Watchmen had been an expensive undertaking for the studios as it could only earn $185 million on an estimated budget of $130 million, according to Box Office records on IMDb.
Zack Snyder Made Watchmen For Himself
Even though film critics have hardly been on his side, Zack Snyder has never missed a chance to speak his mind when it came to the love he’s had for his projects.
He told HuffPost in an interview in 2014 that he adored Alan Moore’s work on the graphic novel.
“So, honestly, I made Watchmen for myself. It’s probably my favorite movie that I’ve made. And I love the graphic novel and I really love everything about the movie. I love the style. I just love the movie and it was a labor of love.”
Considering Zack Snyder loved his passion project that much, it definitely raises the question as to why he didn’t want the film to be released when it did.
Read more: Zack Snyder Revealed His Top 10 Movies and None of Them Are DC or Marvel
Zack Snyder On Watchmen Getting Shelved
Before Watchmen was released, Fox Studios and Warner Bros. were dealing with a court case regarding copyright infringement that the former sued the latter over.
The film suffered release date delays and Zack Snyder hoped that the studios never release it.
“I thought if the movie gets shelved for all time it would be awesome,” he told The New York Times. “There are a couple of my friends that have seen it, and they were like, ‘We would go on a lecture tour and just describe the film to people. That would be our whole thing.’”
Not putting the film out there, Snyder believed that it could have enjoyed a mythical nature as people would talk about it and weave the story with their own imagination.
Watchmen, starring Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jackie Earle Haley, and Malin Akerman, is currently streaming on HBO’s Max platform.
Source: The New York Times, HuffPost
