Back in August, the then-newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery made a shocking decision: They were shelving two films that were close to completion. One was Batgirl, which would have played a key role in the DCEU timeline. The other was Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, the sequel to the 2020’s animated take on the classic cartoon. The company made the rash decision for tax reasons, but they let at least the makers of Scoob! finish their film — even though they vowed it would never be seen.
In a recent interview with Variety, the movie’s director, Michael Kurinsky, who described his shock at working for nearly three decades in the business, only to have his directorial debut taken away from him. He estimates he and his team were 95% done, with only a “few hundred shots that needed to be finished, lit, rendered and then approved.” He was in a meeting for the film when he heard the news — not from Warner Bros. Discovery, but from someone who messaged him on Twitter, asking if it was true.
Thing is, Warner Bros. Discovery allowed them to still complete the film, just for posterity’s sake…sort of:
“The reason we were able to finish this movie is because it was already paid for,” he explained. “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.’”
He continued: “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.”
So what was the film about? Well, the gang were still kids, for one thing. Kurinsky explained the rest:
“The plot was basically Scooby-Doo’s first Christmas … The gang takes Scooby up to this [holiday themed resort] that Fred’s uncle owns. 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!”
Batgirl got a bittersweet send-off, with people holding “funeral screenings” on the studio lot, leaving them among the only people who may ever see it. Who knows? Maybe Warner Bros. Discovery execs will have an unpredictable change of heart and allow them to be released into the wild after all. Doing that just might get them back in the good graces of Brendan Fraser.
(Via Variety)
