Current Events > Coyote vs Acme to be a Tax Write off and deleted.

(+) Yeah! (+)

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.

this shit is just disgusting

as i have said before and others in this topic have said

if you write something off for taxes it shoudl go public domain

AceMos posted...

this shit is just disgusting

as i have said before and others in this topic have said

if you write something off for taxes it shoudl go public domain

Why would they give away a multi million dollar project for free? They might as well have just released it then.

That tax law wouldn't make any sense.

Also, they don't give their access to the public for obvious reasons, that would create a metric ton of legal loopholes that would allow essentially anyone to make legal Wile E cartoons without oversight from WB

Yall really don't know how IP stuff works

CoyoteTheGreat posted...

They reversed course because they expect the Republicans to take power and know there will be zero consequences for them.

What will they do if the Democrats stay in power, then?

Tyranthraxus posted...

This is Zaslav's doing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vnPn4fSn7A
If not,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODfCVxVLqiE

Bat178 posted...

What will they do if the Democrats stay in power, then?

Honestly, the Dems will probably play ball with them, too. The Dems may be the lesser (far lesser) of the two evils of our political system, but they still eat out of the same corporate hand.

Toonstrack posted...

Why would they give away a multi million dollar project for free? They might as well have just released it then.

That tax law wouldn't make any sense.

Also, they don't give their access to the public for obvious reasons, that would create a metric ton of legal loopholes that would allow essentially anyone to make legal Wile E cartoons without oversight from WB

Yall really don't know how IP stuff works

Then release your finished shit instead of depriving people of residuals, flipping off creatives and weasling out of paying taxes.

These mother fuckers...

Unsuprised_Pika posted...

Then release your finished shit instead of depriving people of residuals, flipping off creatives and weasling out of paying taxes.

For the people who made the thing it wasn't their decision to make.

For wb, I csn only assume they didn't think it would pay off, and didn't want another bomb. If you didn't realize they had a pretty rough 2023 and aren't in a great financial state.

Toonstrack posted...

For the people who made the thing it wasn't their decision to make.

For wb, I csn only assume they didn't think it would pay off, and didn't want another bomb. If you didn't realize they had a pretty rough 2023 and aren't in a great financial state.

Everyone who saw the film said that it was great. All they had to do was market it properly, have reviewers laud it, and it should have been a slam dunk for them.

Solar_Crimson posted...

Everyone who saw the film said that it was great. All they had to do was market it properly, have reviewers laud it, and it should have been a slam dunk for them.

They don't care about quality or reviews: They only care if something is financially safe.

Too bad. Best we can hope for is someone goes rogue and leaks it.

Solar_Crimson posted...

Everyone who saw the film said that it was great. All they had to do was market it properly, have reviewers laud it, and it should have been a slam dunk for them.

Great movies dont always make money lol. We both know that. A movies success has to do with a wild number of factors.

toon shilling for big corporations what a shock

AceMos posted...

toon shilling for big corporations what a shock

Well that explains the missing posts, dude's got some of the absolute worst takes on the entire site.

Damn

dancing_cactuar posted...

Well that explains the missing posts, dude's got some of the absolute worst takes on the entire site.

Dude makes crazy good art but terrible takes.

Toonstrack posted...

For the people who made the thing it wasn't their decision to make.

For wb, I csn only assume they didn't think it would pay off, and didn't want another bomb. If you didn't realize they had a pretty rough 2023 and aren't in a great financial state.

That isn't how things should work. In a creative industry raw data doesn't always lead to good results.

And Boohoo. They can cut executive pay massively then and kill off risky projects that are still in their diapers and not literally already finished. And also ya know...not cut negotations off before they even start when shopping projects. There is a lot of space between 40 million and 75 million to negotiate with other companies on a release.

Many companies would be in far better shape if they invested in workers and long term stability instead of cheap stock manipulation and executives.

Also Tax write offs are unjust as they are. They should exist to lessen the damage of genuine failures or to help smaller business. Not to reward callousness or to bail out reckless immoral behavior.

AceMos posted...

toon shilling for big corporations what a shock

Acemos intentionally misreading posts is less of one..

I literally said i want the company to lose the license.

Unsuprised_Pika posted...

That isn't how things should work. In a creative industry raw data doesn't always lead to good results.

We know that. That doesnt mean the company isn't gonna use data.

And Boohoo. They can cut executive pay massively then and kill off risky projects that are still in their diapers and not literally already finished. And also ya know...not cut negotations off before they even start when shopping projects. There is a lot of space between 40 million and 75 million to negotiate with other companies on a release.

I agree with the later half but if you thought any executive was cutting their pay for a looney tunes film you're living in a dream world.

Many companies would be in far better shape if they invested in workers and long term stability instead of cheap stock manipulation and executives.

I mean, were still seeing rhe after effects of rhe pandemic on the box office so any other time id agree but here probably not. There was gonna be a wave of flops. The strikes made it worse.

Also Tax write offs are unjust as they are. They should exist to lessen the damage of genuine failures or to help smaller business. Not to reward callousness or to bail out reckless immoral behavior.

The IRS doesn't give af about the morality of releasing or not releasing a looney tunes movie, and from what I can understand all the actors and crew still got paid so its really a situation where the consumers lose, the creative still got their check which is good.

Toonstrack posted...

Why would they give away a multi million dollar project for free? They might as well have just released it then.

That tax law wouldn't make any sense.

Also, they don't give their access to the public for obvious reasons, that would create a metric ton of legal loopholes that would allow essentially anyone to make legal Wile E cartoons without oversight from WB

Yall really don't know how IP stuff works

Neither do you apparently. They still own the trademark and intellectual properties of Wile. People can't just make their own version of it. They would only be able to use the version from the movie itself.

Error1355 posted...

Should literally be a crime.

Why? Its their film. Surely they can do what they want with it.

SHRlKE posted...

Why? Its their film. Surely they can do what they want with it.

Writing something off that wasn't even released to have failed should be a crime. Not writing it off in general.

SHRlKE posted...

Why? Its their film. Surely they can do what they want with it.

The word property (in this case, intellectual property) means nothing to most people nowadays. People with less want to be able to dictate what people with more do with what they own.

SHRlKE posted...

Why? Its their film. Surely they can do what they want with it.

It is quite possibly fraud.

Revelation34 posted...

Writing something off that wasn't even released to have failed should be a crime. Not writing it off in general.

So how do tax write offs work exactly? If I make a film for 100 million and it fails and I write it off will I effectively gain 100m so I end up completely neutral? Or do I just gain the tax back Id have paid on 100m?

Because if its the latter surely its still a net loss overall? Even if Im paying 20% tax on that 100 million Im only saving 20 million on a 100 million outlay so Im still down 80 million?

If its the first I agree completely thats shitty.

Billyionaire posted...

The word property (in this case, intellectual property) means nothing to most people nowadays. People with less want to be able to dictate what people with more do with what they own.

Seeing as we are paying for it by means of their tax credit I'd say that yes we should get to say what they can do with it.

Revelation34 posted...

Neither do you apparently. They still own the trademark and intellectual properties of Wile. People can't just make their own version of it. They would only be able to use the version from the movie itself.

Who is indistinguishable from the regular one, yes.

Like I said. A legal loophole that essentially allows anyone to use wile e.

uwnim posted...

It is quite possibly fraud.

Its not fraud. Its just cold, heartless capitalism.

Its no different than anyone of you writing off a car part replacement as a work expense. You paid for it, you owned the car part, you did it for business purposes.

We just happen to care about this expense which is why it sucks.

SHRlKE posted...

So how do tax write offs work exactly? If I make a film for 100 million and it fails and I write it off will I effectively gain 100m so I end up completely neutral? Or do I just gain the tax back Id have paid on 100m?

No, you wouldn't be able to write it off because you released it and made money. You just gotta eat the loss .

They Only get this tax thing if they make sure no one gets the film and can release it, no one can profit.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Seeing as we are paying for it by means of their tax credit I'd say that yes we should get to say what they can do with it.

There is a parity to the tax system you are ignoring. If they release the movie, they pay taxes on what is earned. If they don't release the movie then they are afforded a tax credit for the loss.

It's fair.

Toonstrack posted...

Its not fraud. Its just cold, heartless capitalism.

Its no different than anyone of you writing off a car part replacement as a work expense. You paid for it, you owned the car part, you did it for business purposes.

We just happen to care about this expense which is why it sucks.

No, you wouldn't be able to write it off because you released it and made money. You just gotta eat the loss .

They Only get this tax thing if they make sure no one gets the film and can release it, no one can profit.

yeah but can you tell me if in my example they get the full 100 million back or just 20 million?

Given that Zaslav ruined Discovery channel, this isn't shocking.

Billyionaire posted...

There is a parity to the tax system you are ignoring. If they release the movie, they pay taxes on what is earned. If they don't release the movie then they are afforded a tax credit for the loss.

It's fair.

It's fair to the corporate big wigs.

It's not fair to the animators, actors, director, casting, writers, stunt people, set designers, wardrobe department, hair and makeup artists, editors, camera operators, etc., many of whom could have used this movie to get a job on other projects if it had been successful, which test audiences combined with all the media attention it's been getting seem to indicate it would be.

mercurydude posted...

It's fair to the corporate big wigs.

It's not fair to the animators, actors, director, casting, writers, stunt people, set designers, wardrobe department, hair and makeup artists, editors, camera operators, etc., many of whom could have used this movie to get a job on other projects if it had been successful, which test audiences combined with all the media attention it's been getting seem to indicate it would be.

This, ultimately the biggest losers are the ones who made the movie.

SHRlKE posted...

yeah but can you tell me if in my example they get the full 100 million back or just 20 million?

You'd get zero. You'd have to pay taxes on the income you earned, unless im mistaken and someone else can correct me.

You can't write off a project just because it failed; but from what I understand if you come to the irs and say "yo we paid money on this but we don't actually wanna release it anymore can you write this off our taxes and we won't release it" then you get what has happened here.

Prestoff posted...

This, ultimately the biggest losers are the ones who made the movie.

No, not really. They all still got paychecks for the full amount of their time.

The biggest losers is the audience.

mercurydude posted...

It's fair to the corporate big wigs.

It's not fair to the animators, actors, director, casting, writers, stunt people, set designers, wardrobe department, hair and makeup artists, editors, camera operators, etc., many of whom could have used this movie to get a job on other projects if it had been successful, which test audiences combined with all the media attention it's been getting seem to indicate it would be.

It is not WB's responsibility to act in those peoples' best interests, only in its own. They provided a service and were paid for it.

Toonstrack posted...

No, not really. They all still got paychecks for the full amount of their time.

The biggest losers is the audience.

The problem for the creatives is the loss of portfolio material. You cant share your artwork/writing/etc for a written-off project like this professionally in most cases. If youve spent years working on something and have nothing you can legally show to demonstrate your work, its definitely annoying if youre in the job market.

First the Coyote is fucked over by the Roadrunner and now by Zaslav

Man, I knew WB had gone downhill but I didn't realize it was this bad.

Fuckers need to be locked in the water tower, never to be released.

HylianFox posted...

Man, I knew WB had gone downhill but I didn't realize it was this bad.

Fuckers need to be locked in the water tower, never to be released.

Then they get loose
and then vamoose and now you know the plot!