Report: Warner Bros. Rejected Offers for Coyote vs. Acme, David Zaslav Hasn’t Seen the Movie

Warner Bros. has reportedly rejected other studios’ offers to purchase Coyote vs. Acme.

In 2018, Warner Bros. announced a Coyote vs. Acme movie was in development. Dave Green signed on to direct the movie in 2019, while the story came from James Gunn, Jeremy Slater, and Samy Burch.

John Cena, Will Forte, and Lana Condor were all cast in the movie, which was filmed in 2022. While it was originally intended to be released in July 2023, Warner Bros. pulled it from its calendar in April 2022 before shelving it entirely in November 2023 for an approximate $35 million tax write-off.

Following much public backlash, Warner Bros. allowed Coyote vs. Acme to shop around for another distributor. Sony and Apple decided not to place bids, while Netflix, Paramount, and Amazon Studios all appeared to be interested in purchasing the film. Paramount’s came with a theatrical release component.

According to a recent article published by The Wrap, Warner Bros. now seems ready to end the search. While Netflix, Amazon, and Paramount submitted “handsome offers” for the movie, Warner Bros. wanted at least $75 million and wouldn’t allow any counters.

“It was a ‘take it or leave it’ situation, one that the other studios didn’t even know they were entering into,” The Wrap’s article reads.

Warner Bros. hasn’t firmly announced that Coyote vs. Acme won’t be sold to another studio; however, The Wrap’s article also notes the studio might try to quietly erase the film. “A source close to the movie doesn’t believe Warner Bros. would even announce that they hadn’t found a home for the movie,” the article reads. “They would unceremoniously delete it. Never to be seen again.”

The decision to scrap Coyote vs. Acme at Warner Bros. was made by Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group CEOs and co-chairpersons Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation president Bill Damaschke, and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

According to The Wrap, Zaslav hasn’t seen any version of the movie, while De Luca and Abdy only watched a “director’s cut,” and Damaschke saw a “first audience preview.”

Warner Bros. Discovery has a fourth-quarter earnings call scheduled for February 23, 2023. If Warner Bros. hasn’t sold the movie to another distributor by then, the filmmakers behind Coyote vs. Acme believe the call will be the final nail in the coffin and it will be “silenced by a movie studio’s balance sheet.”

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