Let’s All Buy Coyote vs. Acme
In case you have been out of the loop, Warner Bros. has been in the news a lot lately, but not for good reasons. After already angering a lot of fans by throwing away finished or near-finished films like Batgirl and a new animated Scooby Doo movie called Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, Warner Bros. is now doing it again. This time with a hybrid live-action and animated Looney Tunes movie called Coyote vs. Acme. Even if you are like me and not some gigantic Looney Tunes fan, this just feels like enough is enough.
Make The Film Public Domain
Warner Bros. has tried to auction the movie off to different studios like Paramount and Netflix, but their selling price for Coyote vs. Acme is so high that nobody else is biting. So maybe it comes down to us fans to save the movie.We could make a Kickstarter where everyone chips in to effectively get Warner Bros. to turn the movie rights over to public domain.
Or at the very least get enough signatures on a petition to send to legislators encouraging them to make movie studios doing this kind of thing illegal. It feels so shady for a studio to be able to pull the rug on a movie last second and still get a tax break for it.
The Shady Reason Warners Bros. Cancels Finished Movies
Warner Bros. doing this three times now seems like they are testing the waters to see how much they can get away with. The whole reason behind the studio doing this is because they believe the movies they are scrapping would be a waste of money to promote, market, and distribute compared to what they believe the movies would earn back. So instead they are taking movies like Coyote vs Acme and just throwing them away to get a tax break for a technically unreleased movie.
The Finished Product Has Been Praised By Those Who Have Seen It
I understand times are hard for everyone and we are all looking for ways to save money, but I would say the time for a studio to do something like this is during the pre-production stage, or midway through filming at most. To be clear, Coyote vs. Acme is totally finished, right down to the credits. And by all accounts of those who have gotten to see it, it is actually a really good movie.
It sucks to have to hear that all the writers, composers, and actors who worked hard on this thing will have done so for no reason. All because one of the biggest studio names there is has decided they would like to save some money.
We Can’t Let This Be The Norm
This is not even about being a fan of the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. This is about the principle of the matter that it feels morally wrong to screw over so many creative people in their jobs. Even if you don’t care about Coyote vs. Acme, if this kind of practice keeps happening, it will only embolden other studios to start pulling the same thing. And eventually, it will happen to a movie you care about if people don’t put their foot down against this type of practice.
It’s Time To Take Action
Will Forte, who stars in Coyote vs. Acme, has voiced his own frustration about what is happening to the movie. But he is just one person. We need to lend our own voices to the cause and find a way to get this movie out to the public. Studios can’t keep getting away with this, or it will undoubtedly start hurting the industry as a whole.
Let’s not allow this type of move to become a common sight in the future. In the plot of Coyote vs. Acme, it might be ambiguous who is in the right legally, but here in reality, it’s time to set that coyote free and get this movie released.
