LogFAQs > #978750983

Following the death and potential resurrection of Coyote vs. Acme, there were screenings for interested parties. According to several people familiar with the situation, Netflix, Amazon and Paramount screened the movie (which was received well) and submitted handsome offers. Paramount even proposed a theatrical release component to their acquisition of Coyote vs. Acme that would allow for Warner Bros. to save face and, more importantly, let audiences see the movie the way it was meant to be experienced.

Warner Bros. did not respond to requests for comment from TheWrap.

But Warner Bros., which stood to make $35 $40 million on the tax write-down, wanted something in the ballpark of $75 $80 million from a buyer. And whats more, they wouldnt allow the interested studios to counter Warner Bros. offer. It was a take it or leave it situation, one that the other studios didnt even know they were entering into, insiders told TheWrap.

What made the situation even more appalling is that, according to a source close to the project, the four Warner Bros. executives responsible for making this decision CEOs and co-chairpersons of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, along with Warner Bros. Pictures Animation president Bill Damaschke and embattled CEO and president of Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav hadnt even seen the finished version of the movie.

Zaslav never saw the movie at all. De Luca and Abdy saw a directors cut, and Damaschke saw the first audience preview. Significantly, Coyote vs. Acme was developed and greenlit by a previous regime; the only executive that worked on the movie that is still at the company is Jesse Ehrman. These executives, who trumpet a filmmaker-first approach and have recently signed big deals with directors like Ryan Coogler and Paul Thomas Anderson (who conspicuously made their deals after the filmmaker-led backlash to Warner Bros. had subsided), were apparently prepared to trash a movie that theyd never even watched.

This sucks. Seems like they outright just don't want the movie to exist.

I'm guessing they think the Paramount deal would make them look bad. They never intended to give it to anyone.