“Batgirl” wasn’t the only nearly completed Warner Bros. film that was killed last week, but in the case of the animated sequel “Scoob! Holiday Haunt,” the film’s producer and co-writer opted to continue working on the film even after it was canceled.
Both “Batgirl” and “Scoob! Holiday Haunt” were effectively killed last week by Warner Bros. Discovery, which now has no plans to release either film in theaters or on HBO Max despite the fact that both were nearly completed. But “Scoob! 2” co-writer and producer Tony Cervone found himself in a unique position – the stage and musicians had already been paid to record the score for the movie. So when that date came after “Scoob! 2” was canceled, Cervone decided to have the musicians record the score – written by Dara Taylor – anyway.
Cervone posted a picture of musicians on the stage to his Instagram with a note: “So what do you do when the movie is canceled, but you’ve already paid for the stage and the musicians? You record the damn score!”
Director Bill Haller shared on Twitter that he watched the scoring session from home. “Thanks for all the love and support this week,” he said. “Scoob fans are the best in the world! This weekend watched on zoom our score being magically produced by our already paid for musicians while I’m ironically recovering from Covid. It was glorious to my ears! #SaveScoobHolidayHaunt”
Shortly after news broke that “Scoob! Holiday Haunt” was being scrapped, Cervone took to Instagram to reveal that the film was “practically finished and turned out beautifully,” noting he was “beyond heartbroken.”
The film was a Christmas-themed sequel to 2020’s animated “Scooby-Doo” reboot, and was intended to debut on HBO Max in December. The voice cast included McKenna Grace, Ming-Na Wen, Mark Hamill, Michael McKean, Andre Braugher and Cristo Fernandez.
While Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav explained that “Batgirl” was killed out of a desire to focus DC films on theatrical but also out of a concern over quality, the reason for scrapping “Scoob! Holiday Haunt” is less clear. The filmmakers and fans of the franchise, however, have been rallying online to save the film with the hashtag #SaveScoobHolidayHaunt
