Coyote vs. Acme, the Warner Bros. Discovery courtroom comedy based on the popular Looney Tunes character, will likely never come out, lead actor Will Forte said on social media Thursday.
Originally slated for a theatrical release last July, the film was reportedly shelved in November last year.
“The Warner Bros. Discovery tactic of scrapping fully made films for tax breaks is predatory and anti-competitive,” Castro said.
Following fan and industry outrage over the film’s unceremonious fate, Netflix, Amazon and Paramount screened the film and “submitted handsome offers,” none of which were accepted.
“When I first heard that our movie was getting ‘deleted,’ I hadn’t seen it yet,” Forte wrote, addressing the film’s cast and crew. “So I was thinking what everyone else must have been thinking: this thing must be a hunk of junk. But then I saw it. And it’s incredible.”
The SNL alum referenced the movie’s high score among test audiences.
He lamented the studio’s decision to bring the project to a premature end.
“The people who paid for this movie can obviously do whatever they want with it,” Forte wrote, adding, “It doesn’t mean I have to like it … Or agree with it.”
“Please know that all the years and years of hard work, dedication and love that you put into this movie shows in every frame,” he concluded.
“Mr. Coyote states that on occasions too numerous to list in this document he has suffered mishaps with explosives purchased of Defendant,” reads the humor piece, written in the style of a court docket.
This is the third time Warner has axed a film in its final stages, after Scoob! Holiday Haunt and Batgirl in 2022.
“As the Justice Department and @FTC revise their antitrust guidelines they should review this conduct,” Castro wrote in his November social media post. “As someone remarked, it’s like burning down a building for the insurance money.”
