'Coyote Vs. Acme' May Not End Up As A Tax Write-Off As Warner Bros Searches For Distributors
Image Source: Reddit
The rise of streaming services, the pandemic, and the writers/actors strike left many Hollywood studios in a fateful dilemma: they desperately need content to grow their revenue while at the same time lacking the money to produce such content. This led to some questionable decisions, like pulling existing content from one's catalogs or not even releasing new content for tax write-off purposes.
The most recent example of this behavior is Warner Bros' axing of the Looney Toons movie Coyote vs. Acme. The live-action/animation hybrid about the tragic Wile E. Coyote, who finally decides to sue Acme after they failed him time and time again to deliver useful tools to finally catch the Roadrunner, was slated for a theatrical release in June 2023 before being plugged by Warner to gain a $ 30 Mio. write-down on the $ 70 Mio. production.
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The company has done something similar before with Batgirl and the animated Scoob Holiday Haunt! There is hope that the movie starring Will Forte, John Cena, and Lana Condor might see the light of day in the not-too-distant future: after facing a lot of backlash from people involved in the production of the movie, as well as from other creatives, Warner execs frantically set up screenings of Coyote vs. Acme for Apple, Netflix and Amazon Prime, hoping to sell the movie to one of the streamers, with Amazon reportedly in pole position, although no deal has been made yet.
Courtenay Valenti, the Head of Film, Streaming and Theatrical for Amazon Studios, was a big proponent of the movie during her time as President of Production and Development at Warner Bros, so the movie ending up on Amazon Prime would bring the story somewhat full circle. And of course, it would not be the first time that the online retail giant acquired a finished film from another studio, as they have done so with Hotel Transylvania 4 and Cinderella during the pandemic.
Image Source: ORF
Should Amazon strike a deal with Warner, it will be interesting to see if this also includes the rights for a theatrical release or if the movie goes straight to streaming.
These "bizarre anti-art studio financial shenanigans" as Steven Price, the composer of the soundtrack for Coyote vs. Acme, called it, as well as the question if the decision to axe the movie was just a financial one or rather the intention of the current Warner leaderboard to distance themselves from the decisions of the previous regime, doesn't shed a too positive light on the studio's bosses.
Still, with the recent screenings, there is hope that Wile E. Coyote will end up on the winning side for once, at least when it comes to finding an audience.
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Source: Deadline
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