Wile E. Coyote asks the question on everyone’s mind Screenshot: Warner Bros. Don’t expect to see the Looney Tunes back in action anytime soon. The perpetually in dire financial straits Warner Bros. Discovery won’t be releasing its completed Looney Tunes movie, Coyote Vs. Acme, starring John Cena, and will instead take a loss on the film in hopes of grabbing another craven, desperate tax write-off. It’s similar to what happened with Batgirl and the Scoob! sequel last year, with a few caveats. For one thing, by all accounts, Coyote Vs. Acme was finished, performed well with test audiences, and, at one point, was slated to open this year. However, because the re-launch of Warner Bros. Pictures Animation doesn’t have space for the fucking Looney Tunes, the studio “made the difficult decision not to move forward with Coyote vs Acme.” And—get this—the studio has “tremendous respect for the filmmakers, casts, and crew, and are grateful for their contributions to the film.” Nothing says respect like reducing hundreds of hours of hard work into clever accounting. Per The Hollywood Reporter, WBD respected the filmmakers enough to give them fair notice this time. In a tweet, director Dave Green wrote: For three years, I was lucky enough to make a movie about Wile E. Coyote, the most persistent, passionate, and resilient character of all time. I was surrounded by a brilliant team who poured their souls into the project. We were all determined to honor the legacies of these historic characters and actually get them right. Along the ride, we were embraced by test audiences who rewarded us with fantastic scores. I am beyond proud of the final product and beyond devastated by WB’s decision. But in the spirit of Wile E. Coyote, resilience and persistence win the day. Based on the seminal New Yorker Shouts & Murmurs piece by Ian Frazier, Coyote Vs. Acme was slated to open on July 21, 2023, before getting bumped for Barbie. Still, there’s nothing to say this movie couldn’t have been a success had Warner Bros. released it. For one thing, Cena is perfect for this kind of thing. Aside from looking like a living cartoon character, his years in the WWE ring have made him a fantastic comedic performer with remarkable physicality. Who better than a professional wrestler to make a human grabbing a cartoon character look real? It doesn’t matter because Warner Bros. Discovery is another in a long line of entertainment organizations that hate their product. Why does Warner Bros. Discover make movies if its owners hate them so much? No clue! But we expect this nonsense to continue until someone who actually likes entertaining people with moving images takes over the company. In the meantime, after realizing that the Earth is no longer underneath our feet, we’ll hold up a sign toward the camera that reads “Help” and plummet to our demise.
