–

[Note: We’ve now learned that Zack Snyder is stepping down from Justice League to tend to a personal tragedy, with Joss Whedon taking over the film from here on out. Our original story on the reshoots, via Roven’s quotes, follows below.]

Earlier this month, a rumor surfaced that Justice League was in serious trouble, and undergoing massive reshoots. We didn’t report on that rumor because it sounded like a cavalcade of bullshit. It seemed completely divorced from the knowledge of not only how movies are made, but also what was specifically happening with the principal players.

At the junket for Wonder Woman, Steve Weintraub asked producer Charles Roven (you can watch the full video above) about where Justice League was in its post-production process, and it should put to rest any fears created by that bogus rumor:

“We’re just in the post-production process. That’s where we are. We’re in the middle of it, and I think it’s pretty common knowledge that we’re going to be doing some additional photography. The complications of trying to, you know—Henry [Cavill]’s on Mission: Impossible, and our Aquaman is making Aquaman, Amy [Adams]’ doing Sharper Objects [sic]—so everybody’s busy, and it’s that crazy Rubix cube of trying to find a way of getting everybody in the place to do the work that we need to do. Which is not that vast, the amount of work that we have to do, but it’s still really complicated that everybody’s in different places around the world.”

And that’s the reality of the situation. It’s preposterous to simply assume that they’ve had enough time to do extensive reshoots even though the cast is scattered to the four winds. And Roven’s job as a producer is trying to figure out how to handle the logistics of trying to coordinate the scheduling and figure out what needs to be reshot, and how to get everyone back together.

When pressed for more details on the bogus rumor, Roven specified that not only had there been no additional photography beyond facial capture; they’re currently in the process of trying to set up additional photography:

“The reality is we are in the midst of trying to schedule the only additional photography that we’ve been trying to schedule. We haven’t done any additional photography up to this point…Since we’ve wrapped, there’s been no additional photography. Since we’ve wrapped, what there was was motion capture, or what we call facial capture, so we did one round of facial capture, and another mini-round of facial capture. You use facial capture if you have a CG character, you do facial capture in order to give a real performance into that CG character. An example of it would be Avatar.”

So that’s where Justice League is at right now. There will be additional photography, but nothing out of the ordinary. Does that mean the film will be good or bad? We have no idea until we see the finished product.

As Roven points out, post-production is far from a sign of a troubled production, but the microscope that gets turned on Hollywood filmmaking these days always leads to the assumption that if they didn’t get it right during filming, there must be drama. He uses Avatar as an example of why additional photography is far from a death sentence:

“That movie had a long period of production and post-production, post-production, post-production. And it turned out being the biggest movie of all-time. So there’s a lot to be said for additional photography. Social media has made executing these movies more difficult because the screening process is now different, there’s so much chatter about it, you have to be more careful. Ask people to give the filmmaker more opportunity to realize his vision and adjust it along the way. But even though it’s more difficult, and more visible, and less being able to tinker in your garage. But even though it’s much more visible, we still have to do it because our job is to try and make the movies the best we can until we run out of time.”

We’re all eager to have opinions on Justice League, and based on previous DCEU movies and fan culture in general, that movie won’t be hurting for strong takes. But let’s wait until we start dissecting how it was made, and let’s certainly get our facts straight on its post-production process.

Look for more from Steve’s interview with Charles Roven soon.

For more on Justice League: