At some point in the near future, Netflix's roving band of documentary makers is going to have sit down and try parse out the details of what happened between Paramount Studios and Warner Bros. with regards to Henry Cavill's moustache.
No other moustache in movie history has caused so much friction and possible itchiness, and the details that have filtered out from behind the wall of studio decorum gives us a tantalising glimpse of petty drama and a movie spiralling out of control. Christopher McQuarrie, who directed 'Mission: Impossible - Fallout' appeared on Empire's podcast earlier this week and broke down the details of what exactly happened between the studios.
As McQuarrie tells it, the producer of 'Justice League' - Charles Roven - came to McQuarrie with a request to help with reshoots and Cavill's moustache was, presumably, the topic of discussion. Essentially, Roven and the 'Justice League' production needed Cavill's moustache shaved and 'Fallout' was still shooting and, thus, the quandary that faced both studios.
"(The) suggestion was made through channels that we shave the moustache and Henry could begin to grow the moustache back and that then there would be - they would give us the resources to digitally fill in Henry’s moustache. Because like it or not, a fake moustache in close-up on a 75mm lens is never going to look like anything but a fake moustache." No s**t. Just look at that mess on 'Justice League'. It was incredible.
Anyway, McQuarrie and the production offered a compromise. A figure of $3 million was bandied about to replace the shots sans moustache with Cavill, and that's when it kicked off. "We said, here’s what we’ll do: give us the $3 million and we’ll shut down, and that will give Henry Cavill the time to grow his mustache back, and we’ll just shut our movie down. We said we’ll do this, at which point, somebody from Paramount Pictures said, ‘What is going on? What are you people even talking about?’ They’re like, ‘There’s no way we’re going to do that.’ We were just like, ‘Okay.’ That was the best plan that we could come up with."
Needless to say, the rest is history and Cavill's mangled face on 'Justice League' became the stuff of legends that studio executives will speak of in hushed tones in the future.