The actors and writers strikes are finally over, but the jilted team behind the shelved Coyote Vs. Acme isn’t pulling any punches against the studio that crushed their work under an anvil for a measly tax write-off. As reported yesterday, Warner Bros. Discovery decided to give the completed, scored, and audience-tested film the Batgirl treatment and yank it off its slate entirely, despite the fact that it was originally supposed to open earlier this year. (It got bumped for Barbie before getting bumped entirely.)
Despite this massive setback, the team behind the John Cena-led film is embodying, to quote director Dave Green, “resilience and persistence… in the spirit of Wile E. Coyote.” While the video has now been blocked for copyright infringement in an especially cruel twist from WBD, someone on the crew leaked a behind-the-scenes reel of footage we’ll now never see onscreen. The clip contained exactly as many things being blown up and knocked down as you’d expect from a live-action Looney Tunes movie, in addition to just seeming like a whole lot of fun. It’s no wonder the lucky few who did get to see it loved it so much.
The studio’s bizarre decision also cost them and the world this incredible composition by composer Steven Price, who thankfully shared a short clip on X/Twitter. Yes, this is a full choir singing the words “meep meep” over a Tchaikovsky symphony, and yes you should watch it immediately before it gets wiped from the internet like everything else. In the responses to his post, Price also called these “grim times” and said, “this is a weird one, for sure! Good film, scrubbed from existence…”
Other team members also deftly removed WBD’s anvil from their heads with their own barbs. Voice actor Eric Bauza commented, “Here’s a crazy thought… WB Discovery might have a better shot at capturing a younger audience if they stopped shelving/canning all of their kids movies & animated series for tax dollars?! I could be wrong,” before replying to his post, “Not everything can be ‘Shark Week.’” Later, he also shared a video comparing WBD to the terrifying Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Script-contributor Zack Bornstein also commented, writing, “I was lucky to help write on this. [Dave Green] spent years directing a hilarious heartwarming film that tested well with every audience. If great stories with beloved characters and A-list stars are getting shelved for tax write offs, why are studios even in the movie business.”
But perhaps the most upsetting response came from John Cena himself, who posted a caption-less screenshot of Looney Tunes’ “The End” card on Instagram. Over time, we’ll see how much really ended as a result of this decision.
