Like a perfect disguise, Henry Cavill’s mustache served to distract from all the other drama surrounding the “Justice League” reshoots. The online discourse regarding the upper lip problem is understandable, considering the stakes. The price tag Warner Bros. faced for “Justice League” was approaching $300 million with the added reshoot fund; meanwhile, Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” was an equally egregious $250 million. Obviously, neither studio wanted to face the risk of a continuity error, deal with the CGI removal of Cavill’s caterpillar lip, or worst of all, have the actor wear a fake mustache.
“I’ve worked with fake mustaches before,” said “MI6” director Christopher McQuarrie in his AV Club interview. “You can get away with it for a shot or two, but it doesn’t work over the course of a movie.” Surprisingly, the Paramount director was open to compromise, but the studio held firm on Cavill’s commitment. “It was estimated to be at about $3 million,” McQuarrie told Warner Bros. “What we’ll do is shut down and you guys just pay us the $3 million. We’ll shut down while Henry Cavill grows his mustache back. Paramount Pictures heard about this and were like, ‘What are you doing! You’re not shutting the movie down!’” Under contract with Paramount, Cavill was forced to keep his thick mustachio during the “Justice League” reshoots, leaving Warner Bros. to sort out their own mess. In pure happenstance, “Fallout” ended up having to shut down production anyways after lead actor Tom Cruise broke his ankle on set (per THR).