After seeing the finished – and now deleted – Coyote Vs Acme film, Will Forte has penned an open letter to everybody who brought the project to life.
Following a few months when it seemed like the film Coyote Vs Acme might have earned an unlikely reprieve, Warner Bros has seemingly made a final decision regarding the film’s fate. That means deleting the collaborative efforts of a lot of talented and hard-working people from the very same creative community that the studio relies on for the continued lifeblood of its business. Sounds like a wonderful business strategy to us.
One of those talented and hard-working people is Will Forte, who played one of the movie’s leads (alongside John Cena). It looks like Forte got the chance to see the film before it disappeared forever, and he was so taken with it, the actor penned an open letter to everybody involved with the film, praising them for their efforts in creating something ‘incredible.’
‘To the Cast and Crew of Coyote Vs Acme — I know that a lot of you haven’t gotten a chance to see our movie. And sadly, it’s looking like you never will. When I first heard that our movie was getting ‘deleted,’ I hadn’t seen it yet. 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.”
“Super funny throughout, visually stunning, sweet, sincere, and emotionally resonant in a very earned way. As the credits rolled, I just sat there thinking how lucky I was to be a part of something so special. That quickly turned to confusion and frustration. This was the movie they’re not going to release?
“Look, when it comes to Hollywood business stuff, I don’t know shit about shit. Even when a movie tests very well (like ours), there’s no guarantee that it’s gonna be a hit. And at the end of the day, the people who paid for this movie can obviously do whatever they want with it. It doesn’t mean I have to like it (I fucking hate it). Or agree with it. And it doesn’t mean that this movie is anything less than magnificent. You would be so proud of it — a movie that should be seen, but won’t. Please know that all the years and years of hard work, dedication and love that you put into this movie shows in every frame. That’s all folks.’
While Forte is respectful towards Warner Bros (as the owners of the film), his frustrations with the situation are clearly evident.
Amazon is believed to have offered somewhere in the range of $45m for the film, an offer which Warner Bros is thought to have declined, and a recent earnings filing saw Warner Bros write off $115m of ‘content’ in the form of unreleased projects. It’s believed that Coyote Vs Acme is part of that write-off.
It’s a sad ending to a horrible story, and as you likely know, it’s not the first time that Warner Bros has opted to hit the delete key on a film nearing completion as the studio ruthlessly looks to cut operating costs. Hopefully though, it will be the last time it happens – although on that front, only time will tell.
