The SAG-AFTRA strike may be over, but studio shenanigans are evergreen. Warner Bros. has decided not to release its planned Wile E. Coyote movie, Coyote vs. Acme, despite its being a completed project, according to The Hollywood Reporter. As with Batgirl before it, the studio will instead opt for a tax write-off. The film stars John Cena and cost $72 million to make. “For three years, I was lucky enough to make a movie about Wile E. Coyote, the most persistent, passionate, and resilient character of al time,” director Dave Green tweeted in response to the cancellation. “I was surrounded by a brilliant team, who poured their souls into this project. … Along the ride, we were embraced by test audiences who rewarded us with fantastic scores.” In a statement to THR, Warner Bros. said the cancellation was due to a shifting “global strategy to focus on theatrical releases.” James Gunn, who co-wrote and produced the film, has not said anything about its being killed. Vulture has reached out for comment.
The cancellation does have a certain irony, given that, on a recent earnings call, Warner Bros. CEO and media supervillain David Zaslav said that “we haven’t really been able to crack the kids. We have a huge amount of kids content. We’re going to attack that. We think that really differentiates us and we’re going to have to really promote it. We haven’t been.” Promptly pulling the plug on a complete kids’ project for a tax write-off doesn’t seem super in line with that sentiment, but hey, we’re not the CEO.
Other members of the Coyote vs. Acme team have expressed disappointment on social media. Steven Price, who wrote the score for the film, said on Twitter that he “had a lot of fun scoring Coyote Vs Acme” and called the decision to cancel the film “bizarre anti-art studio financial shenanigans.” He additionally shared a video of a chorus singing “Meep Meep,” a meep-ified version of Tchaikovsky that really makes us want to see this movie. C’mon, Zassy! This seems good!
Had a lot of fun scoring Coyote Vs Acme. As no-one will be able to hear it now, due to bizarre anti-art studio financial shenanigans I will never understand, here is a bit of behind the scenes footage of our “Meep Meep” Roadrunner choir, with apologies to Tchaikovsky… pic.twitter.com/HL7h00rXpp
— Steven Price (@SteveBPrice) November 10, 2023
Related
