Happy too soon! The completed $70 million adventure with John Cena will probably end up in the trash anyway

There was a huge outcry when it became clear in November 2023 that the Warner Bros. studio would make the next multimillion-dollar film after the DC actioner ‘Batgirl’, which was almost ready. The family adventure “Coyote vs. ACME” would also fall victim to a tax write-off strategy at the time. There was hope in the meantime, though: Unlike “Batgirl,” Warner allowed the filmmakers to offer their work to other distributors to find a new home and still be able to publish it.

Voice actor Eric Bauza, who lends his voice to several characters in the live-action film-animation mix, even shared the first look at the project and promised we’ll see it in 2024. But apparently this dream has finally burst: like the website wants to know from insiders, Apparently “Coyote Vs. ACME” will not be posted anywhere else, meaning the film will now be forgotten forever.

Particularly bitter: the decision is said to have been made by decision makers at Warner (including Warner boss David Zaslav, who has been working since 2022) who did not see the film at all or only saw an unfinished version.

That’s behind Warner’s tax strategy

Like “Coyote Vs. ACME” shows after the aforementioned “Batgirl” and its animated sequel “Scooby 2”, it is unfortunately no longer an isolated case where already completed Warner projects with budgets of just under $100 million simply end up in the trash. Under David Zaslav, Warner ultimately wants to focus entirely on large blockbuster cinema events and less on medium-sized productions.

Foregoing film releases will allow multi-million write-offs surrounding the relatively recent creation of the new Warner Bros. company. Discovery (a merger of the media groups WarnerMedia and Discovery). This way you can at least recoup a significant part of the costs for a film that you would not believe would be profitable in cinemas or streaming, not least because a release would also entail significant marketing costs. The condition for this: such a film may never actually be released.

Warner reportedly wanted too much money for ‘Coyote Vs. ACME’

Clearly, the salvation of “Coyote Vs. ACME” did not work despite all efforts Apparently this is not due to a lack of interest among potential providers. Netflix and Amazon as well as Paramount are said to have flirted with acquiring the project, with the latter studio even planning to bring it to theaters.

However, corresponding offers are said to have been rejected by Warner, as they apparently fell short of the studio’s expectations, which reportedly demanded as much as $75 to $80 million for the film. Apparently, they even planned to recoup a little more than the entire production budget, which was previously set at $70 million.

All of this information should be viewed with some caution as there has been no official statement from Warner as of yet. However, given the approach of some previous projects, it certainly seems to fit into the current strategy of the traditional Hollywood studio.

That’s what “Coyote Vs. ACME” should be about

‘Coyote Vs. ACME’ would have been the latest film based on the popular cartoon characters from the Looney Tunes cosmos, which, like the two ‘Space Jam’ parts, should come as a mix of live-action and animated film. Instead of Looney Tunes figurehead Bugs Bunny, the plot revolves around the eponymous unfortunate Will E. Coyote. He wants to sue the company ACME for selling him defective products over the years that kept him from getting his hands on the super-fast Road Runner.

A story that we will probably never see in this form, despite an illustrious cast. Based on an idea by James Gunn, the cast of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows” director Dave Green’s film includes DC antihero John Cena as ACME boss, comedy great Will Forte as Wile E .Coyotes Lawyer and Netflix star Lana Condor.