In the past year or so, Warner Bros. has made some major business decisions, which the powers that be have felt are for the betterment of the company. That includes shelving certain projects that have already been filmed. WB made headlines for scrapping DC’s Batgirl movie in 2022 and, this week, it was confirmed that the same fate befell Looney Tunes romp Coyote vs. Acme. Since the news dropped, a number of notable creatives – including several who worked on the film – have spoken out. We can now count Gary Whitta among them, as the veteran screenwriter had some honest thoughts to share about the studio’s decision.
Gary Whitta is certainly no stranger to working with massive studios in Hollywood. During the course of his career, he’s worked on big movies like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and The Book of Eli, which was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. When he learned about the fate of Coyote vs. Acme, Whitta took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to weigh in on the ongoing discussion surrounding the matter. In short, he can’t understand why the choice to shelve the film was made:
Can’t get my head around this. By all accounts COYOTE VS ACME is terrific. It’s based on one of WB’s crown jewel properties. Fantastic premise. John Cena. Co-written/produced by James Gunn. There’s been nothing like it since WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? And they just… threw it away.
The details that the After Earth co-writer laid out about the movie are indeed accurate. When it comes to his take, he seems to be in disbelief due to the factors that the movie had in its favor. Those details are certainly enough to get plenty of people, especially Looney Tunes fans, excited. And that probably makes the news of the project’s scrapping all the more disappointing for prospective viewers.
Dave Green released a statement on social media following the announcement that the film would be locked away in the Warner Bros. vault. In an X post, the Earth to Echo director thanked his “brilliant” team of collaborators for their work. He also stated that while he’s “beyond devastated” by the decision that was made but remains “proud of the final product.” The movie’s composer, Steven Price, also shared a snippet of the “Meep Meep” song that was planned for the movie. This mirrors what happened last year, as members of the Batgirl crew also spoke out on social media after that film was scrapped. The same also happened when WB scrapped Scoob: Holiday Haunt, which went on with a bang.
Based on the responses from Gary Whitta, Dave Green, other Hollywood vets as well as fans, many feel strongly about the film’s demise. It’s certainly reasonable to say this is a head-scratching choice, from the outside looking in. And as a fan of these toons myself, I truly would’ve loved to have seen Wile E. Coyote get his time in the sun.
At this point, all fans can do is use a Max subscription to stream other animated/live-action Looney Tunes flicks.