While it’s often easy to take for granted from the perspective of a consumer, the film industry is a complicated, political, and thus often unpredictable beast. This can result in situations where, for example, a star is fired and recast in the middle of a major production, like Kevin Spacey from Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World following revelations of his history of despicable behaviour during the early days of the MeToo movement; or an entire project falling apart before things even get started, such as when Joaquin Phoenix very recently – and controversially – pulled out of a gay romance movie directed by Todd Haynes a mere five days before filming was to begin, causing the whole production to fall apart. However, these pale in comparison to the actions taken by Warner Bros. Discovery in recent years.
The trouble first began when it was revealed in August 2022 that the animated movies Scoob! Holiday Haunt and The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, as well as the live action movie Batgirl were being shelved by Warner Bros. in favour of tax breaks for the company and a shift to theatrical releases over streaming.
The production team behind Scoob! Holiday Haunt completed the movie anyway despite knowing it wouldn’t be released because, according to co-director Michael Kurinsky, it was “95% finished”, while the company had already spent a reported $90 million USD on Batgirl, which boasted an impressive supporting cast alongside lead actress Leslie Grace, namely J. K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon, Michael Keaton as Batman, and Brendan Fraser as the villainous Firefly. One disgruntled but unnamed cast member on Batgirl allegedly even went so far as to call Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav an “imbecile” following the decision, a sentiment widely echoed in varying forms from others across the entertainment industry.
While these productions are seemingly dead in the water, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, which, believe it or not, is the first fully animated theatrical release in the Looney Tunes franchise, caught a break. Warner Bros. remained open to shopping the movie – which centres on Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, both of whom are voiced by the highly regarded Canadian voice actor Eric Bauza – around for distributors, with Ketchup Entertainment eventually picking up North American distribution rights. The film would finally see wide release on March 14th this year while receiving very positive reviews in the process. This is a big deal not just because a victim of Warner’s scummy business practices managed to finally see the light of day, but also because, according to Bauza in an interview with Screen Rant, “If this movie, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie… gets a lot of money, then we might see Coyote Vs. Acme. Stranger things have happened!”
Well, stranger things seem to be happening, Mr. Bauza, as Ketchup Entertainment are currently in talks to acquire Coyote vs. Acme in addition to The Day the Earth Blew Up, though it is admittedly still under theatrical release and has yet to even recoup its budget.
The shelving of the initial batch of movies in 2022 triggered significant backlash, and it became abundantly clear in November 2023 that Warner Bros. Discovery learned absolutely nothing as they decided to do the same thing with Coyote vs. Acme, which was directed by Dave Green and written Oscar-nominated writer Sammy Burch, with story contributions from Jeremy Slater and none other than James Gunn. The film is a mix of live-action and animation in the same vein as Space Jam, featuring a very clever story that sees Wile E. Coyote suing the Acme Corporation for every product that backfired on him during his attempts to catch the Road Runner. Wile E. Coyote is voiced by Eric Bauza in addition to other various Looney Tunes characters who appear, while Will Forte plays Wile E.’s lawyer Kevin Avery, opposite John Cena playing Buddy Crane, the intimidating lawyer representing the Acme Corporation.
And while this latest cynical move by Warner Bros. was met by the widespread condemnation you would expect, no one has been more vocally disgusted than Forte.
Any actor would tell you that you can’t always tell if a movie is going to be good while you’re making it, with Forte admitting as much about Coyote vs. Acme, and because he had not seen the finished product at the time of the announcement by Warner Bros., he believed “what everyone else must have been thinking: this thing must be a hunk of junk”, before adding, “then I saw it. And it’s incredible.” It’s not just Forte who feels this way either, as test screenings received glowing responses from audiences lucky enough to see the movie. As such, the actor has remained determined to keep the project as the forefront of the public psyche in hopes that one day the demand will be strong enough to make it happen, even thanking a journalist from MovieWeb for bringing up the topic, upon which he did not mince words, saying, “My thoughts were that it’s a fucking bullshit”, before elaborating, “It is such a delightful movie. It deserves so much better than what it got. I don’t know, I can’t tell you possibly why the decision was made to not release it, but it makes my blood boil…. I mean, I would understand if the thing sucked, but it’s really good.”
While nothing has been finalized yet, Green, Forte, Bauza, Cena, and the rest of the cast and crew are surely very encouraged by these latest developments. Warner Bros. was initially seeking $75-$80 million USD when shopping it around last year, but no one was biting at that price. With Ketchup Entertainment now looking to acquire distribution rights at a discount of $50 million, a potential deal could be reached in the next few days or weeks, and if that happens, we can gleefully expect a 2026 release date.