Coyote vs. Acmehas apparently become the latest victim of tax write-downs for Warner Bros., who seem to be following the 2022 playbook of canceling and shelving mostly completed films (in that case,it wasBatgirlandScoob! Holiday Haunt). It seems even more egregious, consideringCoyote vs. Acmewas quite literally finished and had successful preview screenings (not to mention John Cena and Will Forte, and the now Oscar-nomiated writer ofMay December). Warner Bros. canceled the film in early November before reversing course and shopping it around to other studios, which expressed interest but didn’t meet Warner Bros.' cost of the film’s budget, roughly $70 million.
One actor from the movie,Steven Ray Byrd, is not letting it disappear without a fight. He has started a petition and a trending hashtag (#ReleaseCoyoteVsAcme), hoping to increase awareness of the film’s plight and generate enough interest to further the dialogue. You can join Byrd and other voices calling for the film’s release bysigning the petitionhere.
The future ofCoyote vs. Acmebecame even more confusing on March 3 when someone anonymously released a genuinely meticulous plot leak of the film. It detailed Will Forte and John Cena’s characters, the lawsuit at the center of the film, where Tweety, Foghorn Leghorn, Elmer Fudd, and other characters fit in, the allegorical Project Sisyphus at the heart of the film, and basically all the major story beats. But how real is the leak? Byrd spoke with MovieWeb the day after the leak:
“I did read it,” explained Byrd. “So, personally, I will not share leaks. I won’t post it on my things, but I can read it; I was really curious. I basically looked for the scenes that I took part in, and I wanted to see if they were accurate. Let’s be honest, sometimes people post things for clicks. Is it a real leak? The scenes that I were in, I’d say they were accurate from what I saw.” He added:
So I’d say that the leak is accurate. Anybody posting that, they definitely need to put spoilers. I know the movie isn’t released, and we don’t know if it’s ever going to be, but if you don’t want to know what happens — like, say the movie does get released, then it kind of messes the whole thing up by reading the leak. But it misses a lot, too. It’s an outline. There’s a lot of cool stuff that the leak says nothing about. But it does give the story, it tells you how amazing the story is.
“There were people saying they were going to leak the movie, and that is a dangerous thing. I don’t want anybody to get in trouble, it’s really dangerous. I’d stay away from stuff like that. I get it, these are passionate people,” continued Byrd. “Just be careful with leaks, that’s all I can say.”
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Fans Who Support Coyote Vs. Acme: Continue the Fight
The word of mouth aroundCoyote vs. Acmehas resulted in a large campaign to bring the film to audiences. It’s such a brand-specific picture for Warner Bros. that it’s hard to imagine any other platform releasing it. As such, hopefully the film wasn’t part of the recently reported $115 million the company is writing off “due to abandoning films in the third quarter of 2023 as part of a ‘strategic realignment plan associated with the Warner Bros. Pictures Animation group,'” according toThe Hollywood Reporter. Whatever happens, Byrd is immensely grateful to the fans.
“I do appreciate how much support this film has received. I think that’s amazing,” said Byrd. “I take time to read all these comments, and there are so many people who are like,‘you’re able to’t cancel art.’ And that’s kind of the ongoing message. Canceling art is something we shouldn’t do. It’s awesome when people speak up sometimes. I thought about it too, like, ‘Well, Warner Bros. will probably never hire me for anything now.’ But it’s not about that. Sometimes you’ve got to fight. I’m the little guy, I’m just a background actor, but I spoke up as much as I could, and I’m glad it got out there.” He went on:
I’m going to continue to fight, and my advice to everybody is to continue to fight. There’s no definitive proof that it’s been deleted. Things can happen. I’m hoping it’s not one of those situations where they just wait for it to fade away. I’d like to think they’re more respectable than that.
The fate ofCoyote Vs. Acmeis unclear. Watch this space for more information from Byrd about the film and his powerful personal relation to the film, and any other updates. In the meantime, you can follow him@StevenRayByrdon X and@stevenraybyrd.officialon TikTok.
