Coyote vs. Acme is officially on the market.
Days after Warner Bros. announced its shelving the completed Looney Tunes-inspired film as a $30 million tax write-off, the studio is letting the filmmakers shop Coyote vs. Acme to other distributors. Puck, a newsletter covering the industry, and Deadline first reported that screenings are being set up for Amazon Prime Video, Apple and Netflix to acquire the movie, which finished filming in 2022 and was intended to play in theaters.
Amazon and Netflix were active buyers during the pandemic as traditional studios were siphoning off films for extra cash, but nothing has been ironed out for Coyote vs. Acme. Sources familiar with negotiations say the movie hasnt been screened yet. In these instances, rights go to the highest bidder. Its unclear if another company would want to buy a movie that Warner Bros. deemed unworthy to release on the big or small screen. But streaming services always need fresh content, especially of the family-friendly variety, to keep subscribers. And the writers and actors strikes (the second of whichfinally ended on Friday) shut down production for most of the summer and fall, delaying any projects in the pipeline.
Coyote vs. Acme, a $70 million live action-animation hybrid starring John Cena and Lana Condor, is the third movie in two years that Warner Bros. has axed for tax incentives. A similar situation transpired a little over a year ago when Warner Bros. discarded the $90 million-budgeted DC adventure Batgirl and the kid-friendly Scoob! Holiday Haunt. The studio positioned that decision as a one-time-only tax write-off, which made the news of Coyote vs. Acme even more upsetting to the creative community.
All three films were greenlit under the studios former boss Jason Kilar and two of them, Batgirl and Scoob, were made for HBO Max. Kilars successor, Warner Bros. DiscoveryCEO David Zaslav, has shifted the studios priorities back to theatrical and a spokesperson said these movies didnt fit with the new creative direction of the company.
Director Dave Green expressed his disappointment about Warners decision to nix the Coyote vs. Acme, a movie he worked on for three years. Along the ride, we were embraced by test audiences who rewarded us with fantastic scores, the filmmaker wrote on social media. I am beyond proud of the final product.