Snyder Faced 9 Months of 'Massive Pressure' Perfecting Justice League Cut
Behind the scenes of the most demanded director's cut in film history, the filmmaker endured relentless pressure and grueling work to deliver his vision. The composer reveals what really happened during those crucial months.
The global campaign for Zack Snyder's director's cut became legendary. What fans didn't see was the brutal nine-month grind the filmmaker endured to make it perfect. Tom Holkenborg, the film's composer, shared details about this intense period in a recent interview.
So when this project got greenlit, there was massive pressure on Zack to deliver the real deal. And there was massive pressure on my shoulders as well. Like "you better step it up because, you know, the fans are now waiting for us." So we both had to turn our bodies inside out to find the best we had, which meant that Zack had to look at the cuts that he had and figure out what could be better. "Can that be better? Can this be longer, or should it be shorter?" Feeling like a maniac. He was working on that for nine months.
The exhausting effort paid off. When HBO Max released the film, audiences were stunned by how superior this version was compared to the 2017 theatrical release.
The Director's All-or-Nothing Approach
Snyder's commitment went beyond perfectionism. He made it clear that if the final product didn't match his exact vision, he would destroy it completely. At JusticeCon 2020, the director delivered a passionate speech about his unwavering standards.
I would destroy the movie, I would set it on fire, before I would use a single frame that I did not photograph [in my version]. That is a f*cking hard fact. I literally would blow that thing up, if I thought for a second...Anything you see in this movie that reminds you of the theatrical release — which again, famously, I literally have never seen — would be because that was a thing that I had done, and was being borrowed for whatever, that Frankenstein's monster that you got in the theater.
This dedication showed in every frame. Fans and critics alike praised the director's cut as vastly superior to Joss Whedon's 2017 version.
A Cultural Movement Beyond Movies
The road to the Snyder Cut wasn't just about filmmaking. It became a worldwide phenomenon that crossed language barriers and united fans globally through their shared love of the DC Extended Universe.
The movement's impact reached far beyond superhero movies. Major productions like 2023's Barbie referenced the Snyder Cut campaign in their jokes, showing how deeply it penetrated popular culture.
The campaign proved that passionate fan communities can achieve seemingly impossible goals when they unite behind a shared cause. The Snyder Cut stands as proof that collective fan power can move mountains in Hollywood.