Though Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Black Adam is the film’s main attraction, it also features the debut of several other heroes to the DCEU. Among the Justice Society’s roster of heroes, four are making their big screen debuts: Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, and Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher.
Consequently, Steven Weintraub’s discovery that a longer version of Black Adam existed and had to be cut down prior to theatrical release comes as no surprise to anyone who has read his interview with producers Beau Flynn and Hiram Garcia. Flynn and Garcia originally filmed a much longer version of their film. Black Adam was originally going to be longer, but the producers cut out several scenes involving the Justice Society so that it would be just 124 minutes long when it was finally released.
In Flynn’s words: Editing a movie introducing Black Adam and the Justice Society was especially difficult. Of course, you’re familiar with Hawkman and his mythology, but the vast majority of moviegoers aren’t. We shot a lot of extra material to strike the right balance between establishing the Justice League and assuming the audience already knows the characters.
The same can be said of Fate. And the scenes with Smasher and Cyclone are fantastic, as are the ones with Hawkman and Dr Fate, which are among our favourites. However, there are a few scenes that had to be omitted to ensure that Black Adam was being properly served. Flynn and Garcia wanted to make sure they gave audiences the exciting film they had promised, so they kept the running time to under two hours. We wanted it to be exciting from the moment you sit down until the final credits roll, as Flynn puts it.
Since superhero movies typically feature extensive use of CGI, we pondered whether or not any of the deleted scenes were near completion. But when pressed further, Flynn and Garcia emphasised how they designed Black Adam to ensure that no extensive VFX work was done on unfinished parts. For Garcia’s exact words: Before diving headfirst into VFX, it’s important to get the bulk of the editing and other preparation work out of the way. That’s just being fiscally prudent in the film industry and making sure we’re making the most of our resources at all times. Many of the edits were completed before the VFX were added.
Nonetheless, Flynn reveals that a couple of sequences were heavily VFX-ed before the producers decided they didn’t belong in Black Adam.
According to Flynn: I would estimate that two or three sequences were nearly finished in the nick of time. Finally, the end has come. So that we can be responsible and not start turning sequences over to visual effects studios too early, we attempt to provide trailers for our movies to the public as early as possible. Considering the time and effort involved. The bandwidth of the best visual effects studios is ridiculous. When offered millions, they’ll politely decline, claiming they just lack the resources to pull off the project in time or with the quality of artists necessary. The truthfulness is appreciated, however, we still had a release deadline to meet.
The film Black Adam has recently been released to cinemas. More of our in-depth interviews with Flynn and Garcia will be published soon, and later today, we will publish our in-depth interview with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.