Snyder Cut Justice; Woody Allen Legal Threat; NYC Theaters Reopen

In today’s Movie News Rundown: The tragic and redemptive history of Justice League: The Snyder Cut; New York City theaters will reopen soon; and did the Woody Allen doc filmmakers open themselves to legal trouble?

But First: Spike Lee told us the spontaneous line of dialogue he whispered to Chadwick Boseman to deliver during the most emotional scene in Da 5 Bloods.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Vanity Fair’s always excellent Anthony Breznican tells the complete, harrowing story of Justice League, a film that director Zack Snyder departed because of his daughter’s suicide. When he releases The Snyder Cut of the film on HBO Max on March 18, it will be to raise money for suicide prevention.

Wolfwalk With Me: Love animation? Irish things? Wolves? Tonight at 5 PT/8 ET, you’re invited to a special discussion with the filmmakers of Apple TV+’s Wolfwalkers. You can sign up here and choose “MovieMaker.com” for affiliation.

Is This Thing I Feel… Hope?: New York City movie theaters can reopen at limited capacity starting Match 5 — a week from this Friday. Safety measures such as masks, social distancing and heightened sanitizing will be required, Variety reports.

Mayor Pete: Boys State co-director Jesse Moss (hey, we interviewed him) is making a new doc about Pete Buttigieg’s run for president, Variety says. If you aim for the stars, you’ll land at Secretary of Transportation. Not bad.

Woody Allen’s Publisher v. Allen v. Farrow: The Hollywood Reporter says Skyhorse Publishing threatened to sue the new HBO docuseries over its “extensive” and “unauthorized ” use of Allen’s voice reading from the audiobook of Allen’s memoir, Appropos of Nothing. Filmmakers Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick replied that they “legally used limited audio excerpts from Woody Allen’s memoir in the series under the Fair Use doctrine.”

Also: Woody Allen contends that this song proves his innocence.

Both Sides Now: TheWrap notes that six of Allen’s films remain on HBO Max. “These titles will remain available in the library to allow viewers to make their own informed decisions about screening the work,” HBO said in a statement to TheWrap.

Comment of the Day: After we mentioned both Monster Squad and The Running Man in yesterday’s Movie News Rundown, and noted that they both happened to come out in 1987, commenter Daniel observed: “It is additionally weird, cool, and unintentional that the two older movies you mention (The Running Man and The Monster Squad) were produced under the same umbrella company – Taft Entertainment Company (aka TECO) – I happened to work for Taft at this time. Too bad you couldn’t mention Ironweed as well!” That movie also came out in, you guessed it, 1987, when Taft had a hell of a year. Thanks for writing, Daniel!