Jared Leto Wants Suicide Squad Ayer Cut Streamed

Jared Leto wants the Ayer Cut of Suicide Squad to be made available on streaming services:

Jared Leto wants the Ayer Cut of Suicide Squad to be made available on streaming services. The American actor and 30 Seconds to Mars front-man portrayed the Joker in David Ayer’s 2016 DC Extended Universe film. Despite being a box office success, Suicide Squad was widely criticized by reviewers and audiences, with Warner Bros. basically scrapping the project in favor of parts in the Harley Quinn spin-off Birds of Prey and James Gunn’s 2021 sequel, The Suicide Squad. Though its first teaser piqued viewers’ interest, the version of Ayer’s picture that was released in cinemas mostly underwhelmed, with much of the criticism focusing on its sloppy narrative and subpar visual effects. However, the filmmaker has alleged that the studio drastically changed his concept, which was reputedly considerably darker in tone and contained more footage of both Leto’s Joker and Ben Affleck’s Batman. Ayer made a lengthy statement earlier this year claiming to have a complete cut of Suicide Squad ready to go, and he has been strongly advocating for its release in recent months.

Leto told Variety that he believes the Ayer Cut should be released:

Now, his former co-star joins in, telling Variety that he believes the Ayer Cut should be released. While he adopts a more calm demeanour than his impassioned director, Leto seemed perplexed that the studio would contemplate not releasing the alternate version of Suicide Squad. Sharing these types of initiatives, according to the Joker actor, is what streaming was designed for. Check out the rest of his quote below:

Certainly, why not? Why wouldn’t they [distribute the Ayer Cut]? I mean, isn’t that what streaming is for?

The recent success of the Snyder Cut story galvanized Ayer’s cause:

While many a director have had their movie snatched from them throughout Hollywood history, with few ever having the opportunity to go back, Ayer’s cause was motivated by the recent popularity of the Snyder Cut narrative. Because the situation behind the scenes was more complicated, Joss Whedon was called in to restructure the 2017 Justice League film, the failure of which forced WB to fundamentally reassess their approach to the DCEU. After a protracted fan effort, original filmmaker Zack Snyder was permitted to finish his version and release it as Zack Snyder’s Justice League on HBO Max this year, with critical reviews praising it as a marked improvement over the original. It’s probable that Leto’s approval-shrugging stance is shared by many DCEU supporters. Ayer lacks Snyder’s built-in fans to advocate for retrospective creative autonomy on his behalf, and while Suicide Squad’s initial disappointment was considerable, Gunn’s well-received follow-up virtually succeeded in rehabilitating the project. However, assuming the Ayer Cut does not cost the $70 million that the Snyder Cut did, there appears to be no disadvantage to making it another HBO Max exclusive. Still, if the studio never acknowledges this secondary campaign to resurrect one of its previous disasters, it’s difficult to envision the fandom getting too worked up about it.

Source: Variety