Craig Mazin, the writer and creator behind HBO’s critically acclaimed limited series Chernobyl revealed that Zack Snyder asked him to assist in Justice League reshoots in 2017. Mazin is also known for his comedic writing, including Scary Movie 3 & 4 and the Hangover sequels. Now, Mazin is making headway in penning and producing adaptations of popular video games.

Snyder, whose other notable work includes Sucker Punch and 300, is most known for his work within the DCEU. Snyder directed his vision of 2017’s Justice League after having previously directed Man of Steel and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. Unfortunately, Snyder left the film towards the end of production due to a family tragedy. The film was then infamously finished by Joss Whedon, who drastically changed Snyder’s vision, creating an entirely different movie that was not received well by critics or audiences. Due to the lack of success of Whedon’s 2017 film, a fan-led movement emerged in support of releasing the Snyder Cut of Justice League. The whopping 4-hour-long cut was released earlier this year on HBO Max and garnered both financial success and critical acclaim. 

Related: The Snyder Cut Reshoots Added The Perfect Ending For Affleck’s Batman

In the podcast Scriptnotes, hosted by Mazin and fellow prominent screenwriter John August, Mazin revealed that Snyder had approached him and a few other writers to assist with reshoots for Justice League in 2017. In a larger conversation about how the pandemic changed the state of movie theaters, Mazin said the writers were brought in to refine some things over a week of writing right before Snyder left the film. Mazin asserts that he always liked Snyder’s original cut—despite not being a big superhero film fan—which was closer to three hours at the time instead of four and has never seen Whedon’s version. 

I saw the Zack Snyder cut back when he was working on it. Because they were talking about maybe doing a week or reshoots or something like that. And so he invited two or three – I think there were three or four of us, writers, to watch the movie in the state it was in and then just have a conversation about some things that they might be able to do to tweak some things up over the course of a week of writing.

And I, you know me, I’m not like a huge superhero movie guy, but I really liked it. I liked it. I thought it was really good. I thought there were a couple things, like OK here’s some suggestions and things. And then Zack left the project. And so that was it. Literally, I think he left like the next week. And I never saw the Joss Whedon version.

Zack Snyder's Justice League Coming to Blu-ray

Mazin then predicts that the overwhelming acceptance of Snyder’s four-hour-long film will lead to a greater demand for lengthier film extravaganzas made exclusively for streaming. This could certainly change the roles of screenwriters and directors in the film industry, leading to more potentially anthological films like Cloud Atlas, or more auteur films like The Irishman, without the pressure of box office numbers that could never compete with the newest MCU or DCEU film. This change could lead to more fluidity between directors and collaborating with others, akin to bringing in outside writers for reshoots and fine-tuning edits like in Mazin and Snyder’s case. 

As for Mazin and Snyder, they are both remaining busy. Snyder just released his most recent film, Army of the Dead, a few months ago and is set to direct an adaptation of Ayn Rand’s famous novel The Fountainhead. Mazin is currently the scriptwriter behind the star-studded film adaptation of the Gearbox video game Borderlands. Mazin is also the writer and co-executive producer of the highly anticipated HBO series adaptation of the popular video game The Last of Us

More: Army Of The Dead Reshoots Make Whedon’s Justice League More Embarrassing

Source: Scriptnotes