Having shaped the shared motion picture universe for nearly half a decade – on a path that Warner Bros. is no longer interested in pursuing, mind you – Zack Snyder’s departure from the DCEU, whether he was relieved of his duties or withdrew voluntarily, has seemingly forced the founding father to purge his cinematic blueprint for thirteenth highest-grossing film franchise online as some sort of coping mechanism.
As a result, you can forgive us for having grown accustomed to the former head honcho of DC’s extended universe and his social media hi-jinks. Nevertheless, it would appear that now another major player in Snyder’s DCEU, Larry Fong, who served as cinematographer on Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, will be a regular contributor to the superhero group chat going forward.
Fong, whose next project as DP, Shane Black’s The Predator, currently resides in post-production, confirmed via Twitter that “at least part” of the Martha Kent (Diane Lane) abduction sequence was cut from Dawn of Justice, as it was “deemed too dark,” according to Heroic Hollywood.
Taking place after Lex Luther (Jesse Eisenberg) reveals to Superman (Henry Cavill) that he’s kidnapped the Man of Steel’s mother, effectively blackmailing Kal-El into killing Batman (Bruce Wayne), the scene in question saw Clark Kent scour Metropolis and utilize his super-hearing in search of his Earth-born mom, until eventually becoming overwhelmed by all the cries for help radiating from the city.
Unfortunately, like a majority of his vision, Zack Snyder never got the chance to see his plan for the DCEU through to the end, ultimately depriving the fandom of an accurate and detailed account of DC minutia. That’s certainly a shame, but at least we can find solace in the fact that he’s now moved on and announced what his first, post-Justice League project will be; an adaptation of the 1943 Ayn Rand novel, The Fountainhead.
