Scoob! Holiday Haunt Director Calls Completed Film Being Shelved "Incredibly Disappointing"
Scoob!: Holiday Haunt will likely never see the light of day, being shelved by the powers that be at Warners Bros. Discovery only to end up as write-off on this year's taxes. While the movie was pulled from its HBO Max release, the filmmakers behind the film went and finished it anyway, given the vast majority of the picture was complete when David Zaslav and his team pulled the plug. Now, filmmaker Michael Kurinsky calls the entire situation "incredibly disappointing," given the time and resources poured into the production.
"I've been working in this industry for 27, 28 years, something like that. "This is the thing that I have worked my whole career for, and it finally happened. And then eight weeks before we were done, things changed," the filmmaker told Variety in a new interview. "This was a dream come true. It's very bittersweet that I got to realize so many goals in my life, and then to not have it come out is, as you can imagine, incredibly disappointing."
Why did they finish work on Scoob!: Holiday Haunt?
While the film was pulled from release, Warner Bros. Discovery still had the crew finish the remainder of the project since everything was already paid for.
"I can't say it was [Warner Bros] saying, 'Please finish this movie, we want you to.' I think it was more like, 'Finish the movie because we've paid to finish the movie,'" Kurinsky added. "At the end of the day, I don't care why and how it got finished. I'm glad it got finished because so many people worked so hard to make something so beautiful and really great."
What was Scoob!: Holiday Haunt going to be about?
Kurinsky added the film was going to follow the eponymous pup and the rest of his crew during his first Christmas.
"The gang takes Scooby up to this [holiday themed resort] that Fred's uncle owns," the filmmaker revealed. And of course, just like every other Scooby-Doo episode, they go up to a place, a mystery presents itself and the gang now gets involved in the mystery. And we're off!"
The first Scoob! is now streaming on HBO Max.