Most moviegoers may never get the chance to see Coyote vs. Acme, but star Will Forte has. And he wants everyone — but especially the film’s cast and crew — to know that if it never sees the light of day, it won’t be for quality reasons.
“When I first heard that our movie was getting ‘deleted,’ I hadn’t seen it yet,” Forte said Thursday in a statement posted on social media. “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.”
Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic; Everett Collection
Coyote vs. Acme was first announced in 2020 as a hybrid live-action/animation film in which the iconic Looney Tunes character Wile E. Coyote would sue the Acme Corporation for selling him so many products that failed to help him catch his nemesis, the Road Runner. Forte was cast as Coyote’s down-and-out lawyer, while John Cena would play his high-powered former boss. (The movie was produced by James Gunn, who also worked with Cena on The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker.) The screenplay was written by Samy Burch, who just earned an Oscar nomination for scripting Netflix’s May December.
But even though Coyote vs. Acme completed production, news broke in November that the movie was being shelved by Warner Bros. for tax purposes, much like Batgirl before it. WB confirmed to EW at that time that director Dave Green would be allowed to shop the project to other studios, but the lack of updates since then seems to confirm its doom. Representatives for WB didn’t immediately respond to EW’s request for comment on the film’s current status.
“You would be so proud of it — a movie that should be seen, but won’t,” Forte wrote in the conclusion of his note to the cast and crew. “Please know that all the years and years of hard work, dedication and love that you put into this movie shows in every frame.”
Read Forte’s full statement above.
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