Will Forte hopes the brief shelving of his film “Coyote vs. Acme” will lead to greater success now that it’s coming out.
While talking with Entertainment Weekly, Forte explained the anger he felt when he first learned his live-action/animated hybrid Looney Tunes film was shelved by David Zaslav and Warner Bros. a couple years ago. With the film finally getting its theatrical release, he’s hoping the trials to the big screen translate into success.
“Extreme frustration, fiery frustration, a lot of anger, white-hot anger,” Forte explained. “But then ultimately, that’s mixed with pride in this movie we’ve done. And also, who knows? Everything happens for a reason, and it is certainly possible that the crazy journey that this movie is taking will help get more eyes on it, because it’s a story people know about a little bit. But I don’t think we needed this crazy journey.”
Forte played Wile E. Coyote’s defense attorney in the film. John Cena and Lana Condor starred alongside Forte in “Coyote vs. Acme,” which, like “Batgirl” and “Scoob: Holiday Haunt,” was canceled for the tax writedown, a decision favored by WBD CEO Zaslav, who never saw the movie before making the call to shelve it. The film was written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Samy Burch and directed by Dave Green.
Forte has expressed his frustrations with the shelving before. When asked by MovieWeb about the film’s then-dead status, the actor did not mince his words about the situation.
“My thoughts were that it’s f–king bulls–t,” he added. “It is such a delightful movie. It deserves so much better than it got,” he told the outlet. “I can’t tell you possibly why the decision was made to not release it. But it makes my blood boil.”
Forte continued: “Thank you for asking me about it because I like talking about the movie because I don’t want people to forget what [Warner Bros. Discovery] did to this. I appreciate them letting us make it, but don’t let us make this thing that we fall in love with and then not show it. I would understand if the thing sucked, but it’s really good. Maybe somehow we get to see it at some point. I hope people do. I was really proud of it.”
