No One Will Save You Director Brian Duffield Says He Won't Even Talk to Warner Bros.

Brian Duffield, the writer and filmmaker whose No One Will Save You was the most-streamed movie in America earlier this fall, has taken a strong stance against Warner Bros. Discovery. As part of the discourse surrounding Coyote vs. Acme, Duffield revealed on social media that he had previously instructed his representatives that he would not consider working with the studio, which has been at the center of a number of recent controversies. Duffield's tweet is an indication of just how frustrated some in Hollywood have become with Warners' new management, which has been slashing production and staffing costs while management escapes more or less unscathed.

Warner Bros. are not the only studio to shelve completed or nearly-completed projects in recent years -- reportedly for the tax credits the company can get if they call a big project a total loss -- but they are the ones who popularized the practice, and the ones who have been the most aggressive about it. Filmmakers have been saying for over a year that it makes them nervous about working with Warner Bros., since you can do months or years of work, only to have the project scrapped. That also means you lose all your future royalties and residuals, since a movie nobody is watching, does not have audience metrics to measure bonuses by.

That's the conversation that came up again on social media over the weekend, with fans speculating about whether the move might chase off talent. A handful of smaller creators said they would never work with Warner Bros. -- although it's obviously a lot easier said than done when you need the work. Duffield, though, is pretty well set.

You can see his remarks below.

I've already told my reps I won't engage with Warners, so that's at least a $300m loss for them right there.

— Brian Duffield (@BrianDuffield) November 9, 2023

Discovery boss David Zaslav, who became the Warner Bros. CEO following the companies' merger in April 2022, earned a truly massive compensation package for that year, with bonuses and stock options reportedly totaling more than $200 million. The acquisition of Warner Bros. saddled Discovery with billions in debt, though, and so as soon as he came on board, Zaslav directed the company to start cutting costs wherever possible. Among other things, this famously led to the cancellation of the Batgirl movie and Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, both of which were almost completely done, and both of which were based on big pieces of intellectual property for Warner Bros. and seemed likely to be profitable considering their relatively low budgets.

Since then, creatives in Hollywood have been up in arms, and during the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, Zaslav became an easy target for the ire of...well, pretty much everyone. That had died down a little bit, but almost immediately after the actors' strike ended, Warners announced plans to shelve Coyote vs. Acme, a fully-completed film that had already been shown to test audiences and apparently done very well. Not only did the internet have opinions this time around, but the people who made the movie didn't stay as quiet as previous creatives teams did.

Composer Steven Price called out "bizarre anti-art studio financial shenanigans," and the movie's director said he was "beyond devastated by WB's decision."

The studio has since changed course, and will allow other distributors to bid on the movie rather than giving up on it entirely.