Zaslav stood his ground. “Coyote vs. Acme” headed for the trash
Andreas Rivera
February 10, 2024 5:47 am
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3 min read
On February 26, Warner Bros. Discovery will present its financial report for the last quarter of 2023. As reported by The Wrap, this is when we will officially learn the fate of the completed animation “Coyote vs. Acme.” The conglomerate will once again discard the film.
None of the WBD and WB bosses have seen the film. Instead, they set stringent conditions.
Recall that we first learned in November that “Coyote vs. Acme” would be scrapped. Warner Bros. Discovery, seeking several billion dollars in savings, deemed that scrapping the finished film would bring them approximately $35-40 million in tax write-offs. It was considered a profitable solution.
However, Hollywood was in an uproar. The public relations crisis turned out to be so significant that urgently, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group heads Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy decided over the weekend not to scrap the film. Instead, it was decided to hold screenings for interested studios that would buy the project.
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Both from test screenings and industry screenings, there was support for the creators of “Coyote vs. Acme”. The film is reportedly good or even very good. Interested parties in purchasing included Netflix and Amazon. Paramount even wanted to add a theatrical distribution offer.
By the end of the year, the situation seemed good enough that Eric Bauza, the actor who voices Wile E. Coyote, posted the first official photo from the film online.
However, as reported in an extensive article by The Wrap, the truth was entirely different. Warner Bros. management was not interested in selling the film. Their goal was to close the chapter titled “Coyote vs. Acme”.
Therefore, they did not inform about the offers from the animation creators. There were also no negotiations with interested studios. WBD set a tough condition: pay us $75-80 million or there is no deal. The conglomerate did not agree to any negotiations. This was their only offer.
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What’s worse, none of the current management of the conglomerate has seen the finished version of “Coyote vs. Acme”. David Zaslav, the head of WBD, has not seen the film at all. The heads of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group only saw a rough “director’s cut”. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation chief Bill Damaschke was only present at the first test screening.
The Wrap suggests that time is quickly running out for “Coyote vs. Acme” and seems to imply that there is no hope for the film.
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