Warner Bros. has reportedly reversed course on Coyote vs. Acme, and will allow the filmmakers to shop the movie around Hollywood in a search for a new distributor. The news comes days after Warners announced they should shelve the film entirely and write it down for a $30 million tax credit, declaring the movie a total loss. Once that happened, numerous filmmakers took to social media to express frustration, saying that the movie was complete, good, and had even had numerous test audiences in which it did well. The movie, originally created for Max, was seemingly victim to Warner Bros. Discovery’s new philosophy that expensive feature films should never go straight to streaming.
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According to Puck, who broke the news that the movie will be shopped around, Warner Bros. film chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy made the call, along with animation boss Bill Damaschke. Warners had already agreed to pay the director and some stars a streaming bonus in spiteo f the movie being shelved, but Matt Belloni’s report makes it sound like it wasn’t a particularly warm and fuzzy conversation.
“For three years, I was lucky enough to make a movie about Wile E. Coyote, the most persistent, passionate, and resilient character of all time,” director Dave Green posted on social media last week. “I was surrounded by a brilliant team, who poured their souls into this project for years. We were all determined to honor the legacies of these historic characters and actually get them right. Along the ride, we were embraced by test audiences who rewarded us with fantastic scores. I am beyond proud of the final product, and beyond devastated by WB’s decision. But in the spirit of Wile E. Coyote, resilience and persistence win the day.”
Warner Bros. presumably did not believe that the project didn’t have enough appeal for a wide theatrical release. That logic will be tested now, although it’s difficult to say how much another studio would have to come up with order for Warner Bros. to take such a humiliating public loss. The $30 million they were getting from the government to shelve it is obviously the floor, but it’s not implausible the studio could try to recoup the entire budget from any potential buyer up front. That would give them the leeway to spike any deal that comes up short of $70 million, to prove they were “right” in the first place.
Coyote vs. Acme was directed by Green, from a screenplay by Samy Burch and a story by James Gunn, Jeremy Slater and Burch. The story was reportedly partially inspired by an article from The New Yorker, which was written by Ian Frazier in 1990. With the involvement of Gunn and star John Cena, who plays the CEO of Acme in the movie, audiences and filmmakers alike pointed out that the success of Peacemaker, and WB’s determination that James Gunn was going to be the one to save the DC brand, didn’t seem like it was enough to guarantee the movie a spot on the release schedule. Some filmmakers have said they simply won’t work with Warner Bros. at this point, since it seems no one (and no project) is safe.
Last year, Warners shocked the industry by cancelling a $90 million Batgirl movie, which was almost complete and starred Michael Keaton as Batman. At the same time, they shelved Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, an animated feature film that was so close to complete that the filmmakers were supposedly able to just put the finishing touches on it before it went into the WB vault. While removing content from streaming platforms for a tax break is not unique to Warner Bros. Discovery, the company have been far and away the most aggressive in doing so, and given his massive salary, CEO David Zaslav has become an embodiment of everything wrong with big studios in the eyes of fans and creatives.
Coyote vs. Acme centers on Looney Tunes character Wile E. Coyote, who was finally suing the Acme Corporation after years of defective products had constantly maimed and foiled him in his quest to catch the Roadrunner. The film stars John Cena as the head of Acme, Will Forte as Wile E. Coyote’s lawyer, and Deadly Class star Lana Condor in an undisclosed role.
It’s likely that the filmmakers (and other Hollywood talent) were key to reversing course for Warner Bros. Online outrage doesn’t seem to have fazed them in the cases of things like Batgirl and Scoob!, after all. That said, Warner and Max are the home to the most famous successful fan campaign in recent memory, the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story misidentified Pamela Abdy as being close to retirement. In fact, it’s WB’s franchise boss Pamela Lifford who is stepping away soon. We apologize for the error.
