Coyote VS Acme Still Deserves To Be Released, And I Won't Shut Up About It

 

 

The axed Warner Bros. movie, Coyote Vs Acme still remains a hot topic even a full year after it's cancellation.

The last time we heard an official statement from Warner Bros. They said it was still available for acquisition, but that was back in April 2024 and so far we haven't had any updates since. After all this media attention and great free press of the film, why hasn't anyone picked up Coyote vs Acme yet? 

What is "Coyote VS Acme"?

Coyote VS Acme was a live action - animated hybrid Looney Tunes movie, about the character Wile E. Coyote & Roadrunner. It was based on a 1990 New Yorker magazine article by Ian Fraizer. The film starred John Cena, Will Forte, Lana Condor and Eric Bauza as the voice actor for a couple of Looney Tunes characters, while Wile E Coyote would stay silent in the film, communicating via gestures and with his human counterparts.

Why was this movie cancelled?

 

The movie was cancelled pretty much for tax purposes. In 2022, controversial Warner Bros Discovery C.E.O David Zaslav decided to cancel the live action Batgirl movie and the animated Scoob 2: Holiday Haunt film for a tax write off. This caused a lot of controversy within the entertainment industry. In early 2023, Warner Bros quietly dropped Coyote vs Acme from its schedule and replaced it with Barbie which was a massive success. It was then announced that they would not release Coyote vs Acme, after all. This caused a lot of backlash once again as well as the popular Twitter hashtag #ReleaseCoyoteVsAcme. To make matters worse, the movie was completed just before it was cancelled.

 

Many people in the film industry staged protests and cancelled meetings with Warner Bros to show their disgust about the movie's cancellation and treatment of the animation industry. This made WB backtrack their original decision and in late 2023 they announced they would shop it around to streaming services. We thought the movie was saved.

Sadly, it wasn't.

Despite multiple private screenings to streamers. Warner Bros Discovery was asking for a flat rate of $75 - 80 million (basically, the film's budget). Apple and Sony Pictures weren't interested. Netflix, Amazon Prime and Paramount were potential buyers, all putting bids on the table. But frustratingly, for whatever reason they all bid less than the asking price. David Zaslav called "no backsies" and rejected them all without any counter offers. It was then he knew he was sitting on a gold mine. But if they'd release the movie and it ends up being a complete success, they would look dumb for cancelling it in the first place.  Many accused Zaslav for shopping it around and rejecting offers in bad faith.

What Happens Now?

It looked like things were picking up again, in early 2024, voice actor Eric Bauza yelled "RELEASE COYOTE VS ACME!" in front of thousands of people at the 2024 Annie Awards. This sparked a renewed interest in releasing the film publicly, but there was frustratingly still no takers. A few months later, screenwriter Samy Burch said she was currently in talks with Warner Bros to release the film, but sadly, we still are yet to hear from any result. She also revealed that they are still quietly test screening the movie around the country and the reception to the film was mostly positive amongst the audiences. 

All Hope Might Not Be Lost

Another Looney Tunes movie, The Day The Earth Blew Up, was recently saved from the WB Discovery Graveyard. It was going to be released on MAX (like Coyote vs Acme) before they decided to not release it. This other Looney Tunes movie, which is fully animated, was saved by Ketchup Entertainment back in August, for a planned release date of February 2025. Who knows maybe if The Day The Earth Blew Up gets good reception and is successful WB may reconsider it shelving Coyote vs Acme and realize there is still a huge audience out there for Looney Tunes movies. 

 

Coyote VS Acme still deserves to be released. There is still a lot of interest in the movie yet for whatever reason no potential buyer has come forward to purchase it. No movie should be cancelled for tax purposes. I mean just look at Joker 2 for example, it didn't even have any test screenings and that movie sucked but it still came out. Coyote VS Acme could end up being good, it's just a shame that they never even bothered to try to release it.