David Zaslav, the Warner Bros. Discovery CEO, is at it again! You might remember his antics when he shelved the almost-complete Batgirl movie in August 2022 for a tax write-off. Today, we found out the studio was at this tactic again, and this time it’s the already-shot Coyote vs. Acme that got caught in the crosshairs.
The movie, which starred Peacemaker himself, John Cena (pictured above), will never see the light of day because it’s apparently worth more to the studio as a tax write-off than a piece of entertainment targeted to families, a demographic they said on their last earnings call that they were eager to cultivate. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie cost about $72 million to make.
“With the re-launch of Warner Bros. Pictures Animation in June, the studio has shifted its global strategy to focus on theatrical releases,” a WB Motion Picture Group spokesperson told THR in a statement. “With this new direction, we have made the difficult decision not to move forward with Coyote vs Acme. We have tremendous respect for the filmmakers, casts, and crew, and are grateful for their contributions to the film.”
Whether the live-action/animated film hybrid was any good or not is something we’ll never know. What we do know, however, is that it contained a score that included a Meep Meep (as in Roadrunner) choir. The good news is we get to hear at least a snippet of that song thanks to composer Steven Price, who posted on the platform formally known as Twitter a one-minute video of the unique take on Tchaikovsky.
Listen and weep meep below:
Had a lot of fun scoring Coyote Vs Acme. As no-one will be able to hear it now, due to bizarre anti-art studio financial shenanigans I will never understand, here is a bit of behind the scenes footage of our “Meep Meep” Roadrunner choir, with apologies to Tchaikovsky… pic.twitter.com/HL7h00rXpp
— Steven Price (@SteveBPrice) November 10, 2023
Price also confirmed in a reply to this post that the was film already completely mixed and finished and the animation looked great. Too bad we’ll never see it! Thanks Zaslav!
