The investigation into whether or not Joss Whedon mistreated cast and crew on the set of 'Justice League' has reached another chapter in the past 24 hours.
It emerged early yesterday that Ray Fisher, who initially made the claim, has not been cooperating with Warner Bros. and their investigation. On Monday of this week, Ray Fisher tweeted that Walter Hamada, the President of DC Films, attempted "to throw Joss Whedon and Jon Berg under the bus" in order to relent on claiming that Geoff Johns was enabling Whedon's bad behaviour.
So you can better understand how deep this goes:
After speaking out about Justice League, I received a phone call from the President of DC Films wherein he attempted to throw Joss Whedon and Jon Berg under the bus in hopes that I would relent on Geoff Johns.
I will not.
A>E— Ray Fisher (@ray8fisher) September 4, 2020
Fisher has claimed that Whedon was being protected by Geoff Johns and Jon Berg, but didn't go into specifics about what it was that Whedon was said to have done. For his part, Whedon has never publicly commented on the matter.
On Friday, Warner Bros. released a damning statement about the investigation that Warner Bros. launched at Fisher's behest, as well as defending Walter Hamada. The statement claimed that Fisher had complaints about his portrayal of the character Cyborg, and that his script revisions were not adopted by Whedon. The statement also said that Fisher was contacted by a third-party investigator - who was hired by the studio at his behest - but has not yet responded to him.
Fisher, meanwhile, has fired back at this statement.
He claims that he met with the investigator on August 26th over Zoom, and that he had "definitely been put on by Warner Bros. Pictures, not Warner Media. His findings will go directly to Warner Bros. Pictures Legal." Fisher sent said e-mail to both his team and SAG-AFTA, the actor's union in the US. The actor also claimed that the investigator had another person on the line as a witness, which he wasn't told about.
It’s also worth noting that I made it clear to the world on Aug 21st that I would be vetting the investigator to ensure a fair and protected process for all witnesses. @wbpictures has escalated this to an entirely different level, but I’m ready to meet the challenge.
A>E
2/2 pic.twitter.com/OcOmcVZtub— Ray Fisher (@ray8fisher) September 5, 2020
So, to summarise.
Ray Fisher alleged that there was workplace misconduct by Joss Whedon during the production of 'Justice League' and that Whedon was being protected by Geoff Johns and Jon Berg, who were the heads of DC Films at the time. Fisher never gave specifics, but asked for an investigation to be carried out.
Warner Bros. hired an independent third-party investigator at Fisher's urging, who then tried to contact Fisher with a witness on the call. Fisher then claims that he ended the call early because he wanted his own representative on the line with him. Fisher then tweets that he spoke to Walter Hamada, who replaced Geoff Johns and Jon Berg as head of DC Films, and says that Hamada tried to throw Berg and Joss Whedon under the bus to take the heat off Geoff Johns.
Warner Bros. then releases a statement saying that Hamada never said that, and then said that Fisher wasn't cooperating with the investigation, which he himself confirmed in that screenshot he posted. The statement from Warner Bros. also highlights that Fisher had issues over his character was being portrayed and complained that his script revisions weren't being used.
It's clear to anyone looking at this from a dispassionate standpoint that 'Justice League' was - through and through - a f*cking mess of a movie and that nothing good came from it.
None of the other cast members - Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa - have commented on Fisher's claims, or the investigation into Joss Whedon's alleged misconduct either. With Zack Snyder leaving the movie and Joss Whedon stepping in, there was bound to be major changes to how the movie was progressing.
Whether or not that impacted Ray Fisher's screentime and his script revisions is unclear, but seeing as how Zack Snyder's version of the movie is due to be released in the coming months, it may be that Ray Fisher's character was utilised differently in each version of the movie.
Either way, it doesn't change the fact that 'Justice League' - the one we all saw - was a disaster of a movie and bombed spectacularly at the box office.
Three years on, people are still picking through the rubble.
