Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: coyote vs. acme

The Final Nail In The Coyote vs. Acme Coffin: The Execs Didn't Watch

A new report says that Coyote vs. Acme will not be released and none of the executives at Warner Bros. Discovery watched the film.

In August 2022, word came down that Warner Bros. Discovery was shelving not one but two completed films that were in post-production for tax purposes. The outrage from the public was massive. People rallied behind the films [mostly Batgirl though Scoob! Holiday Haunt deserved just as much love] yelling at the studio to release the movies. Industry professionals were terrified that this would become the new normal; this could happen to anyone; their projects were always one decision away from being thrown into a vault, never to be seen again to make the bottom line a little better for investors. You would think, with the backlash as loud and as bad as it was back in August, that Warner Bros. Discovery wouldn't make a habit of this, but it turns out that learning from our mistakes is what characters in movies do, not what the people who finance the movies do. In early November 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery announced they were shelving Coyote vs. Acme, not only another film but a 100% completed film, and the world proceeded to lose its mind.

Coyote vs. Acme vs Warner Bros. Discovery

In a new article from The Wrap, the last three months or so since the announcement have started to come into focus, and it might be even worse than we all thought it would be. Coyote vs. Acme was different from Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt in that it was completed and tested really well, as well as Barbie if some reports were to be believed. So, when it was announced that Warner Bros. Discovery would give the filmmakers a chance to try and find the film a new home, there was some hope that maybe the studio could do half of the right thing. However, it looks like that could have been all for show. The studio apparently wanted somewhere in the range of $75-$80 million for the film. Still, the thing that made the sale hard was that "they wouldn't allow the interested studios to counter Warner Bros.' offer. It was "take it or leave it" situation, one that the other studios didn't even know they were entering into," according to sources. Hollywood is not built on a "take it or leave it" deal, and it isn't that surprising that studios weren't willing to play ball with a studio that appeared to be entering these talks in bad faith.

That might have to do with the other big thing The Wrap discovered in its reporting. The four executives responsible for this entire thing hadn't seen the movie's final cut, which was testing so well. CEOs and co-chairpersons of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, Michael De Luca and Pam Abd, saw a "director's cut," we can tell you that those cuts are always a little rough and not indicative of what a final project will look like. Warner Bros. Pictures Animation president Bill Damaschke saw a "first audience preview," which is closer to a final cut but without any of the feedback you get from test audiences that can make a good film great. Finally, CEO and president of Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav hadn't seen the movie at all, in any capacity. So they can't walk in and claim that they are cutting this film because they think it won't do well because they haven't seen it; they can't make that call.

If none of these people saw Coyote vs. Acme and the studio appeared to be heading into negotiations in bad faith, to begin with, it certainly seems like Zaslav and the rest wanted their cake and to eat it, too. They wanted to shelve the film and get all the benefits from doing that, but they also wanted credit for trying to save it. The problem is, faking sincerity is hard to do, and if they wanted to try and pull that off, they probably should have watched the film they were trying to delete from existence. This article is likely going to shake things up again. There will be a ton of backlash, but all of the hashtags in the world won't undo a decision made three months ago.

Producer Chris DeFeria reportedly got a call from a Warner Bros. Executive at the beginning of last month where they said, "They just want to get this behind them. They want to close the books." The truth is that it seems like this film was dead from the moment the reports came down on November 9th, and everything between then and now has been prolonging the inevitable and trying to get good press for trying. The facade has fallen apart, and reality has slammed into us like a tunnel painted onto a rock wall.

This is the third film that Warner Bros. Discovery has shelved because they can't seem to get out of the red. They have massive deals with directors like Ryan Coogler and Paul Thomas Anderson and just signed a major partnership with Tom Cruise. How big of a name must you be to be safe from a cut like this? This whole thing is just as sad as it was for Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt. Once they get the money for this tax write-off, Warner Bros. Discovery cannot profit from Coyote vs. Acme. The film will not see the light of day, and all the hard work of those involved will never be acknowledged or celebrated. A film reel likely doesn't exist; it's all digital, so all someone needs to do is delete a file, and it's all gone forever. There isn't a vault for these films anymore, like one click, and we're done.

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