Through his work, Christopher Nolan has inspired a number of recent filmmakers. Simon Kinberg said The Dark Knight trilogy inspired him while making Dark Phoenix, and Sam Mendes called The Dark Knight a “game changer” for him. Now, Suicide Squad director David Ayer says he took inspiration from Christopher Nolan with a major part of the Ayer Cut.
With the Snyder Cut officially happening at HBO Max, there’s been a whirlwind of discussion about other movies that could get their own director’s cuts, including David Ayer’s Suicide Squad. David Ayer himself has been talking a lot about this on Twitter. When a fan asked about a specific Joker scene in Suicide Squad not making it in, David Ayer answered with a tweet that cited Nolan:
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what he means when he says he took his inspiration from Nolan. If I had to guess, Christopher Nolan’s work inspired him to use non-linear storytelling, a technique Nolan uses so much that it’s practically Nolan-esque at this point.
Because of the way Suicide Squad was advertised, fans expected to get a healthy dose of Joker and Harley Quinn’s relationship. Instead, many of these additional scenes were cut. As seen above, David Ayer’s explanation as for why they got cut is that they were “too dark,” a tone the DCEU has long wrestled with for some time. Margot Robbie also spoke about the cuts back in 2016 and stated they were meant to help put more focus on the team and Enchantress.
At the same time, the “too dark” explanation seems to line up with earlier reports about Suicide Squad’s reshoots. At the time, there were rumors that reshoots were done to lighten the tone and add more humor. According to reports, these reshoots cost the production tens of millions of dollars.
Regardless, Suicide Squad clearly has a lot of extra footage that hit the cutting room floor, footage that David Ayer would like to use to piece together his own Ayer Cut. But supporters of the Ayer Cut may not want to hold their breath. As much as he wants it to happen, David Ayer has said his version of Suicide Squad is unlikely to see the light of day.
While the Ayer Cut would be fascinating to see, especially with this new reveal that some of it was inspired by Christopher Nolan, there is the possibility that it might also conflict with, and maybe even get in the way of, James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. With that said, James Gunn was recently asked how he’d feel if the Ayer Cut was released, and confirmed that he’d be okay with it.
The more that’s revealed about the Ayer Cut, the more it piques my interest to see what David Ayer initially had in mind, especially with this apparent complicated relationship between Joker and Harley Quinn. But what say you? Do you want to see the Ayer Cut? Let us know in the comments!
