Christopher McQuarrie talks about behind-the-scenes discussions about Henry Cavill's moustache

Christopher McQuarrie has opened up about the backdoor negotiations between Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros regarding actor Henry Cavill's mustache which had become a major bone of contention for the reshoots of "Justice League".

Cavill's moustache, which he grew for his role in "Mission: Impossible - Fallout", made global headlines last year when Warner Bros wanted the facial hair gone for the "Justice League" reshoots. But his contractual obligations to Paramount Pictures proved to be a major hurdle.

Ultimately, Warner Bros took the middle road and had Cavill's moustache removed digitally. They, however, were unsuccessful in hiding it from the diehard fans who spotted the anomaly in the film.

 

In an interview with Empire podcast, McQuarrie said Justice League producer Charles Roven had called him to explain the situation with the reshoots and told him that they want the moustache to be gone.

"I said, 'Look, Chuck, naturally I want to do everything I can to help you, but I also have to think about our production. Let me talk to everybody and figure out what the scheduling would be.' And I went and spoke to (Fallout producer) Jake Myers, and 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," he said.

McQuarrie revealed that Myers told the studio that it would cost an additional USD 3 million in visual effects budget. However, the Paramount bosses were not onboard with idea and stopped it.

"We said, here's what we'll do: give us the USD 3 million and we'll shut down, and that will give 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," McQuarrie said.