Filmmakers Very Upset About Potential ‘Coyote vs Acme’ Shelving

The Wrap’s Stephanie Kaloi has a good piece up recaping the industry pushback in regards to Warner Bros potentially shelving “Coyote vs Acme.”

The response has not been coming from the biggest of names, what does that tell you? It’d be more effective to have a Bradley Cooper, Tom Cruise or Martin Scorsese come out and condemn Warner Bros’ actions, but the truth is that they won’t and they can’t.

“Spider-Verse” writer/producer Phil Lord wrote a handful of posts on X in which he questioned the studio’s motivation and operational ethics:

Is it anticompetitive if one of the biggest movie studios in the world shuns the marketplace in order to use a tax loophole to write off an entire movie so they can more easily merge with one of the other biggest movie studios in the world? ‘Cause it SEEMS anticompetitive

“Scott Pilgrim Takes Off” writer BenDavid Grabinski wrote that “Coyote vs. Acme” made him “cry” and he “hope(s) people get to see it,” to which Lord replied, “Big laughs. Big heart. Big ideas. Plays better than many films that will be released theatrically this year.”

Zack Stentz, a screenwriter, says the ‘Coyote vs Acme’ axing concerns him about the future relationships between studios and creative minds. He responded to Jeff Sneider who had no gripes about Warner Bros not releasing the film.

The entertainment industry runs on relationships with talent. And if a studio gets the reputation for being a place that will bury your film to get a tax break, that damages relationships with writers, directors, and actors

Joe Russo weighed in with a warning for Warner Bros. in light of the recent SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes:

Studios cannot keep shelving movies for tax credits. It’s unfair to the cast & crew. It’s unfair to taxpayers. It’s unfair to audiences. If a good Looney Tunes movie isn’t viable, what is? Lawyers need to work penalties in. The gov. needs to step up. Or in 2026, unions will.

Meanwhile, I do wonder, is Warners actually going to destroy all copies of the movie? Writer, producer and director Liz Hannah suggested that perhaps someone should take matters into their own hands …

I’m not saying someone should leak the movie but if someone leaked the movie maybe we could watch the movie that was leaked and tell the people who didn’t want it leaked that the movie that was leaked was great and they were dumb for not releasing the movie before it was leaked.

So, what happens next? My prediction is that “Coyote vs Acme” will eventually get leaked online. Someone should have a copy somewhere that the studio doesn't know about. Usually, an assortment of people would have a copy of the film through post production — editor, director, assistants, etc .. This is certainly looking like the best case scenario for the filmmakers of this movie.