DC Comics’ anticipated superhero blockbuster Justice League has reportedly run into scheduling issues because of its big ensemble cast.
Big stars, of course, tend to have conflicting schedules, hence the problem. Production is reportedly struggling to coordinate reshoots, which cost an estimated $25 million—part of a normal process that’s a bigger headache in this case.
It’s standard for big Hollywood movies to schedule a few weeks of pick-up work, but the cost and time allotted to the work on “Justice League” is raising some eyebrows. Reshoots, or additional photography, to use the preferred studio nomenclature, traditionally cost between $6 million and $10 million, and rarely have to juggle so many competing schedules. They typically last a week or two.
Though stars like Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot, who play Batman and Wonder Woman, aren’t working on any other projects at the moment, enabling them to be on call for the filming, other cast members such as Ezra Miller and Henry Cavill have been scrambling to accommodate the additional photography.
The highlight of Variety’s report is the news that while Henry Cavill (Superman) was simultaneously shooting both Justice League and an unnecessary Mission: Impossible sequel, Paramount (responsible for the latter) required him to leave his facial hair intact during production.
The Justice League reshoots, according to sources, involve dialogue improvements from Avengers director Joss Whedon, who took over completion of the film after Zach Snyder dropped out in the aftermath of his daughter’s suicide.
Our sister site io9 called the new trailer “epic,” so the issues could all be worth it. For comparison, there were similar reshoots for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which was a pretty good movie, and for Suicide Squad, one of the worst movies ever made.