Warner Bros shelves finished Wile E. Coyote feature film as tax write-off

[madhair60]

shit.

[jamiefairlie]

Warner Bros have backed down and now won't shelve the film.

Well done Lads!

It's amazing that with this leverage over a multinational media conglomerate the likes of Linehan and Rowling have withstood the obvious might on display.

JK Rowling

[dissolute ocelot]

Pleased it's not cancelled, although I probably won't watch it. But surely some disgruntled worker would leak the film eventually? Is their security that good they can stop even the most resentful employee? Can films really sit in a vault totally unseen in the modern digital era?

[Famous Mortimer]

Pleased it's not cancelled, although I probably won't watch it. But surely some disgruntled worker would leak the film eventually? Is their security that good they can stop even the most resentful employee? Can films really sit in a vault totally unseen in the modern digital era?

Did the Batgirl movie ever get leaked?

[MojoJojo]

With Batgirl, it was in post production and reportedly some scenes remained to be shot. So there has never actually been a complete film to watch.

[Ferris]

My guess would be due to how hollywood accounting tries to make sure no film really makes a profit on paper a junked movie can have massively inflated costs that syphon cash out and the funds can be recouped from a picture that overshot the accounting forecasts maybe.

This is probably the case, like a boring version of The Producers.

[Ignatius_S]

Pleased it's not cancelled, although I probably won't watch it. But surely some disgruntled worker would leak the film eventually? Is their security that good they can stop even the most resentful employee? Can films really sit in a vault totally unseen in the modern digital era?

Yeah, I mean someone is bound to think 'you know, I never want to work in this industry and face legal issues that will ruin my life.'

[Ignatius_S]

This is probably the case, like a boring version of The Producers.

I believe that Emo Phillips has said that he's yet to receive any money from the remake of Meet the Parents as according to the accountants, it's yet to make a profit.

[Famous Mortimer]

With Batgirl, it was in post production and reportedly some scenes remained to be shot. So there has never actually been a complete film to watch.

I didn't realise @dissolute ocelot was only referring to completely finished movies.

From reading the article about "Batgirl", it seems like it would be quite easy to stop people from ever seeing something. All footage gets uploaded to servers, you can only view / edit footage while logged in, change a few passwords and it's gone forever. Sort of a moot point now we're getting the full Wile E Coyote experience soon, I suppose.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I didn't realise @dissolute ocelot was only referring to completely finished movies.

From reading the article about "Batgirl", it seems like it would be quite easy to stop people from ever seeing something. All footage gets uploaded to servers, you can only view / edit footage while logged in, change a few passwords and it's gone forever. Sort of a moot point now we're getting the full Wile E Coyote experience soon, I suppose.

And that's with an active project, no reason to give people access to a locked film that's vaulted.

Of course workprints still have been known to leak. But it wouldn't surprise me if they watermark them these days.

Of course what can be possible isn't always the case, and with work farmed between different parties, contractors and subcontractors there's always weak links and security protocol can get dropped quick when expediency is the priority.

[Petey Pate]

Curmudgeonly animation critic Amid Amidi has seen the film and liked it, which has increased my curiosity as the man usually hates the majority of modern mainstream animation.

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/i-saw-coyote-vs-acme-and-its-as-wonderful-as-everyone-says-it-is-234963.html

[dissolute ocelot]

Yeah, I mean someone is bound to think 'you know, I never want to work in this industry and face legal issues that will ruin my life.'

You'd think if someone was pissed enough about their masterpiece never being released, they might fancy destroying their career, quit animation, and go work on a farm. No idea how good their security is, and if they could trace it to an individual though.

[Mister Six]

Probably wouldn't want to work on a farm just to pay back the $30 million that Warners will sue them for, plus whatever prison time comes from corporate espionage or theft charges or whatever Warners can persuade the DA to hit them with though.

[BritishHobo]

Warner Bros have backed down and now won't shelve the film.

Never mind, Warner Bros have rejected multiple offers for distribution, and will probably wipe the film after all.

[Mister Six]

FFS.

[bgmnts]

Horrible greedy useless parasitic cunt fucking wankers

[Mister Six]

Stopped reading the article at this point because my blood started to boil.

What made the situation even more appalling is that, according to a source close to the project, the four Warner Bros. executives responsible for making this decision – CEOs and co-chairpersons of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, along with Warner Bros. Pictures Animation president Bill Damaschke and embattled CEO and president of Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav – hadn't even seen the finished version of the movie.

Zaslav never saw the movie at all. De Luca and Abdy saw a "director's cut," and Damaschke saw the first audience preview. Significantly, "Coyote vs. Acme" was developed and greenlit by a previous regime; the only executive that worked on the movie that is still at the company is Jesse Ehrman. These executives, who trumpet a filmmaker-first approach and have recently signed big deals with directors like Ryan Coogler and Paul Thomas Anderson (who conspicuously made their deals after the filmmaker-led backlash to Warner Bros. had subsided), were apparently prepared to trash a movie that they'd never even watched.

Genuinely fucking hope Zaslav dies. Not even in a funny ironic way, like being flattened by an anvil or something. Just hope he slumps over and that's it. The man's actively destroying a swathe of modern American media, in a position he got because he oversaw the introduction of Dr Pimple Popper and 90 Day Fiancee.

Get dead, cunt.

(I know some smirking twats will be "Ohhh you're upset that he cancelled a cartoon film and some superhero dreck? Who cares!" but for fuck's sake, can't you see how reprehensible this line of logic is, even if it's being directed at pop culture ephemera? Even if it was some pisspoor Zack Snyder film or a Michael Bay Transformers flick or something, I'd still want it to be made available to the public rather than deleted completely from servers forever.)

[idunnosomename]

I was going to quote that bit precisely but I got the yellow warning

scumbags

do wonder how people involved in the production don't have workprints of it though. not that they could leak it without getting sued to oblivion, but to totally erase all the work? is that possible?

[Mister Six]

I mean, fuck, can't they just vault it for the next 70 years or whatever, until it's in the public domain? I'd rather that than it vanish completely.

[Mister Six]

do wonder how people involved in the production don't have workprints of it though. not that they could leak it without getting sued to oblivion, but to totally erase all the work? is that possible?

Given the volumes of data being talked about there, I'd imagine anything approaching the finished film lies exclusively on WB studio mainframes. Snatches of workprints and stuff might be out there, but I don't know how likely it is that any decent-sized chunk has made it out of the WB network.

Hopefully this period of reprieve has given someone the opportunity to copy it for future promulgation, although god knows if anyone would have the balls to face a rogering by WB's lawyers.

[madhair60]

i was going to do a joke but then i saw how angry mr six has become and i have decided to let it lie out of respect for the man and his madness

[Small Man Big Horse]

Everything I've read about David Zaslav makes him sound like an astonishing cunt who has barely any interest in films at all. From what I've read about people in similar roles over the last four or five decades I know that it's a job filled with a lot of pressure, it involves dealing with some awful human beings, and many of the studio heads have been revealed to be horrendous people as well, but at least they did actually have some interest in cinema and some of them wanted to make films of a certain quality.

[idunnosomename]

I must say i dont really understand this. The Batgirl thing wasnt meant as a theatrical presentation, and there seemed less of a threat of overall deletion. This film screened well and would probably do well.

There is an argument that if studios keep putting out lossmakers, then they're not going to be in a position to give millions to creatives to make movies, hence why cold-money grubbing cunts like Zaslav are a necessity. However the framing of this gives off a lot of spite: they'd rather save $30 million on tax than take $40M off another studio.

Some talk that this legislation should be invoked
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Artists_Rights_Act

At the very least, artists who worked on this for years have nothing to show for it when applying for further positions.

[Ferris]

Hang on, if they don't release this it doesn't just gather dust on a shelf somewhere - it gets deleted?? Why?

[Herbert Ashe]

Only recently found Charlie Chaplin did this as well, to a von Sternberg film his production company did: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Woman_of_the_Sea

[idunnosomename]

Hang on, if they don't release this it doesn't just gather dust on a shelf somewhere - it gets deleted?? Why?

From the wrap article

In a truly inglorious end, a source close to the movie doesn't believe Warner Bros. would even announce that they hadn't found a home for the movie. They would unceremoniously delete it. Never to be seen again.

Not sure it makes a lot if difference what they do with it, but Batgirl has never been confirmed as deleted. It's not like you can burn the physical film with witnesses anymore to prove its gone, these things are ultimately image sequences you can store on a commercially available HDD.

I would watch this based entirely on Wile E.'s face in that still in court. His earnestly hopeful expression is perfect if they're keeping him mute - and very appropriate for this situation.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Modern films average something like 40TB of data so they probably just need to free up some hard drive storage for games and that.

[Ferris]

Fair enough, if it's for games then I can understand.

[madhair60]

it's really funny to call for the death of Zaslav over this:



i agree it should be released, it is absurd to withdraw a finished film in this manner. but it's still fucking funny, sorry

[Mister Six]

I want him to die for a lot of things, of which this is just one.