Zack Snyder knows what's it's like to be replaced. After his daughter died during the production of Justice League, Joss Whedon stepped in to take over directorial duties (to the dismay of the entire cast). But at least it wasn't Snyder's fault.
Now that Snyder Cut has granted all of the fan's wishes, and Whedon Cut will go down in infamy, it's not really a big issue. Snyder was welcomed back with open arms after his replacement.
But Chris D'Elia isn't so lucky. Snyder replaced him with fellow comedian Tig Notaro on Snyder's newest endeavor, Netflix's Army of the Dead, following sexual misconduct allegations. It cost millions to do reshoots and digitally impose Notaro into the film as if she'd always been there. It could have proved disastrous, but it actually only made the film stronger in the end. No wonder Snyder ban chairs onset; there was no time for him to sit down.
Here's all we know about D'Elia's firing from Army of the Dead.
D'Elia Was Fired After Most Of The Film Was Shot
There was a lot of hype surrounding Army of the Dead before it premiered. We were getting another (long) film from Snyder right after Snyder Cut, and it was long-awaited. It took more than a decade to get Army of the Dead off the ground. Once Snyder did, he was faced with multiple roadblocks. D'Elia's scandal being the biggest.
By the summer of 2020, Snyder thought he'd finally be able to finish his film; he was wrong. Filming wrapped the previous year, and Snyder was well into post-production when D'Elia, who played the helicopter pilot, a vital player in the film's heist, was accused of sexual misconduct.
Several women came forward to accuse D'Elia of making sexual advances on them when they were underage after Simone Rossi tweeted that D'Elia tried to arrange a sexual encounter with her when she was 16. She shared screenshots of their alleged conversation.
"Imagine being 16 and being groomed by a stand-up comedian twice ur age and the only reason you never met up and never got physically m*lested was because u had just gotten a boyfriend ur own age," Rossi tweeted. She also explained D'Elia knew she was in high school at the time.
"I know I have said and done things that might have offended people during my career, but I have never knowingly pursued any underage women at any point," D’Elia said in his statement. "All of my relationships have been both legal and consensual and I have never met or exchanged any inappropriate photos with the people who have tweeted about me. That being said, I really am truly sorry. I was a dumb guy who ABSOLUTELY let myself get caught up in my lifestyle. That’s MY fault. I own it. I’ve been reflecting on this for some time now and I promise I will continue to do better."
Ironically, D'Elia has played a child predator in two different projects, including Workaholics and You.
After the allegations surfaced, everyone dropped D'Elia, and Snyder told Uproxx that the decision to replace him in Army of the Dead was "pretty instantaneous." But Snyder had to stop where he was in post-production, quickly find someone to replace D'Elia, and reshoot his scenes somehow...all within a pandemic.
Tig Notaro was Snyder's only choice to replace D'Elia, and she had to fly in and save the movie just like her character flys in to save everyone at the end of the film.
Netflix Had To Splash The Cash To Get The Reshoots Done
Snyder sent Notaro a copy of the film along with some notes and, of course, the script when he asked her to come on board. She was shocked but took the job and started preparing while Snyder and a small crew safely got together as well.
Snyder told Vanity Fair that Netflix gave them "a few million" for the reshoots and all the digital work they had to do to take D'Elia out and put Notaro in. Deborah Snyder, his wife, likened the amount of money they got to the entire budget for the upcoming Army of the Dead prequel Army of Thieves. She said Netflix "put their money where their mouth is" and really helped them out.
When Notaro arrived on the scene, she had to stick to a very tight script to avoid inaccuracies, especially when she appeared to be right next to one of her castmates (who she still hasn't even met).
Her movements had to be a hundred percent on point, with the help of greened-out props, tennis balls, and laser pointers to make sure her line of sight was perfect. Add all the pandemic restrictions; it was hard work.
"It’s so daunting. And let’s couple that with an actual pandemic that we are dealing with," Deborah told The Hollywood Reporter. "We shot for 14 days with Tig [Notaro] in the movie. Had it not been the pandemic, we probably would have brought the whole cast in and reshoot scenes with everybody. But we didn’t have that luxury. We were trying to keep it small. We were trying to keep it safe."
The digital team scanned Notaro's body, plugged her in, and made literal movie magic. This was the trickiest process, but it was all worth the hassle.
D'Elia was served a civil suit this past March, accusing him of child sexual exploitation and violation of child pornography laws, and the film turned out to be a success with fans. Despite all the bumps along the way, Army of the Dead turned out to be so seamlessly done that even the people who knew Notaro had been added in forgot. "It could have been a disaster," Snyder said, but thankfully he and his team are geniuses. When Notaro wrapped filming, Snyder gave her a fake Oscar.
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