Rebel Moon is now a two-part film with several different versions
Original sci-fi universes are few and far between in Hollywood, so it’s no surprise that Zack Snyder’s latest blockbuster Rebel Moon is getting a lot of attention. Netflix’s space epic is meant to be a totally original world, something like Snyder’s version of Star Wars. Rebel Moon was first revealed at Vanity Fair on Tuesday, and while we didn’t learn much about the films, we did learn a lot of very interesting things about how they came to be.
One of Snyder’s most interesting comments in the story is why “Rebel Moon” now consists of two films instead of one. Snyder’s films are often lengthy, especially when he has the last word on their content. Snyder’s version of Watchmen is three hours and ten minutes long, while Zack Snyder’s Justice League is just over four hours. According to Snyder, Netflix said that movies shorter than two hours tend to resonate better with its users — despite the habit of watching back-to-back episodes on TV.
Image: Netflix
With that in mind, it’s not shocking that Netflix asked Snyder to slightly shorten the initial runtime of Rebel Moon. But when the director complained that cutting the film would ruin its character arcs and themes, he found the solution to splitting it into two films instead. Snyder says that unlike other two-part blockbusters, the parts of “Rebel Moon” will appear fairly close together thanks to Netflix’s non-traditional release schedule.
But even the shorter, two-part films show an interesting compromise. According to Snyder, there will be two cuts of each film release: one for all ages and another for adults that will be closer to Snyder’s vision. Snyder frequently uses violence, swearing, gore, and nudity in his films, but it’s not yet clear what objectionable content will be removed from the more family-friendly version of the films, or if they will also have a significantly different runtime than Snyder’s version of The Parts.
Image: Netflix
On the one hand, the idea of a studio pushing a filmmaker towards an algorithmically more user-friendly, mainstream version of their film is nothing new — take, for example, all of Snyder’s other Director’s Cut films. What’s strange and exciting in this case is the idea of having this marketable version of the film stand alongside the version that’s closer to the director’s original vision, and allow the audience to choose for themselves which option is best for them is.
How all this will end we will have to wait for the official release of the first part of Rebel Moon on December 22nd.
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