Coyote Vs Acme: A Film In Limbo
Written by Rhys Harries, Edited by Olutomola Bolonduro
In August 2018, Warner Bros. Entertainment began on a new Looney Tunes project. Directed by Dave Green and eventually titled Coyote Vs Acme, the film would have a hybrid live-action/animated style, similar to Disney’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The premise of the film would’ve seen the titular Wile E Coyote going up against the ACME company in court after all of their products had backfired on him in his countless attempts to catch the Roadrunner. With a budget of 70 million dollars, the film finished production in mid-2022 and was slated for a theatrical release on July 21st, 2023.
However, not long after its completion, Coyote Vs Acme was kicked off of Warner Bros.’ release schedule and replaced with the Barbie movie. Then, on November 9th, 2023, Warner Bros announced that they would not be releasing the finished film because they would rather take a 30 million dollar tax write-off from the project instead.
Warner Bros wanted to cancel the movie outright, but after immense protest from the internet, that decision was dialed back and the company instead shopped around to see if any streaming services were interested in buying the movie. Many companies such as Netflix and Paramount sent in handsome offers, the highest of which reached roughly 85 million dollars, nearly 3 times what Warner Bros. would have received from the tax payout. But despite this, Warner Bros has rejected every offer.
That leaves us where we are today; as of now, the film is still shelved, and the threat of it being deleted forever and never shown to the public is still very real. Warner Bros. is still open to selling the film, but these discussions have yet to go anywhere beyond that. All of the people — actors, directors and more — who worked on this movie will possibly never have the satisfaction of seeing their work on the big screen.
The business practices that are being carried out by Warner Bros, are destroying the industry.
