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Warner Bros. Discovery has backtracked on its decision to shelve Coyote vs. Acme as a tax write off, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The studio has decided to let director Dave Green shop around the movie to other buyers. Amazon is said to be a potential buyer.
The entertainment website broke the news that WBD would shelve Coyote vs. Acme, the third completed film to be nixed after Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt.
After the first two nearly completed films were jettisoned, a group of filmmakers with deals at Warner Bros. Discovery started a text chain to provide an outlet for their hopes and fears, as well as motivation and suggestions on how to work with the studio. One question prevailed: What was happening with their movies?
Coyote vs. Acme's cancelation may have been the straw that broke the camel's back, especially since the studio had said that Batgirl and Scoob!'s shelving wasn't going to be a regular occurrence. Sources told THR that after the news of the Coyote movie cancelation, some filmmakers told their representatives to cancel meetings scheduled with WBD.
Now that the film is free to look for a new studio to release it, these filmmakers are waiting to see what happens.
Coyote vs. Acme screen testing score
The hybrid live-action and animated movie, which stars Will Forte and John Cena, had also been screen tested several times, scoring in the 90s. Films sometimes go through testing where a screening is available to a certain number of people. Afterward, the selected group will be asked to complete a questionnaire or provide feedback.
Academy Award-winner Argo, the Deadpool movies and the first installment of The Conjuring are a few movies that have gone through the same procedure, also scoring in the 90s.
When Batgirl was shelved, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav stated, “Our job is to protect the DC brand, and that's what we're going to do.” This fueled the narrative that the movie was dumped because it wasn't very good. Peter Safran, who was head of DC Studios after Batgirl's release was canceled, said to the press in January that the movie “was not releasable.”
Filmmaker Brian Duffield of Hulu hit No One Will Save You said, “I don't know how you see the movie and then go, ‘That couldn't happen to me.'” He wasn't involved in Coyote vs. Acme, but is friends with Green.
Long-time film executives have acknowledged that the process of shelving a film as a tax writeoff, which means no distribution and marketing, can be make a studio's earnings look better. However, it can also be shortsighted for a business built on franchises.
This isn't the first time Zaslav has backtracked on a major decision after a public outcry. He had previously reversed the gutting of Turner Classic Movies due to protests from several prominent directors such as Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.
The entire incident echoes the massive popular sentiment on social media, “F**** around and find out.” Warner Bros. Discovery's first F was shelving a movie tested highly among audiences, but they deem it unreleasable so they plan to dump it and take the tax writeoff. Now WBD has found out that there are consequences to being blasted on social media by the very people who make your products.
