It looks like Warner Bros. has reversed course on Coyote vs. Acme, which it recently decided to shelve for a tax write-off. As Clint Barton once said to Natasha Romanoff, “Don’t do that. Don’t give me hope.”
According to Puck‘s Matthew Belloni (via Pajiba), the filmmakers are being given the opportunity to shop Coyote vs. Acme to other buyers. The hope is that the Looney Tunes live-action / animation hybrid, which stars John Cena, can go ahead and find a new life somewhere else. Now, if I was working for Warner Bros. and was trying to keep the brand together, I’d probably not want Looney Tunes to go to another studio. That’s just me, though.
If the Looney Tunes brand was that connected to me, I wouldn’t want to let it go or trash it so easily all because I wanted a tax break. The movie cost $70 million to make and the tax break was only $30 million, so money was lost.
If WB had released the movie, it could have easily made that $70 million back. According to numerous reports and people who have seen it, Coyote vs. Acme is reminiscent of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. You market that movie the right way and people will go and see it. Instead, WB wanted to trash the hard work of people who loved the movie they created.
The report from Belloni states that Warner film chief Mike De Luca and Pam Adby pushed to make this happen after blowback from fans and the filmmaking community. Now it just needs to find a new home.
Taking the brand elsewhere
Truly the most outrageous line of thinking is that something so connected to Warner Bros. history is just disposable. Especially when the word around the industry is that the movie is good. Zaslav and company don’t care about the quality of the work they’re putting out if this is the case; they care about what they think will make them money and that’s it.
The Flash was still released and barely made a profit, but WB is shelving finished films without giving them a chance, all for the tax break. Why? Because Zaslav & Co. don’t really care about quality.
Coyote vs. Acme getting a second chance elsewhere is what it deserves. It’s a chance that all movies should have (especially when they’re finished), and hopefully a new studio gives it the release that it deserves. It is strange that Warner Bros. cares so little about something so tied to their brand identity but hey, as long as we get to see Coyote vs. Acme, we’re better for it.
(via Pajiba, featured image: Warner Bros.)
