Whenever you dug even sort of deep into stories about it, it came out that Snyder had an original idea for the movie in mind (actually, it was to be two movies), but didn't get to film everything. Part of it was because Warner Bros./DC didn't seem to love his ideas and some of what he did shoot, and part of it was because he had to leave the project due to a family crisis.

After Snyder walked away, Warners Bros. was left with an incomplete movie. They hired Whedon, who did a lot of re-writes and re-shoots. But there Snyder never got a chance to shoot his entire "vision." This is him somehow talking Warner Bros. into giving him the money to do it.