"Batgirl" movie canceled by WB (Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah directed)

[sugarcoater]

Adil and Bilall, who are good action-movie directors, are having a string of bad luck lately. Their Ms. Marvel series wasn't well received (lowest audience of any MCU TV show). They got pulled off the director's chairs for Beverly Hills Cop IV, which looked like it was going to be killer (Eddie Murphy and Harold Faltermeyer both returning). And now this. Can you imagine - Adil heard about this in the middle of his wedding in Morocco! Apparently, Warner is trying to renegotiate their contracts with the pair (and Leslie Grace, who should never have been Batgirl anyway, but would probably be fine playing any number of other superheroines) to keep them in the mix for future projects, but if I were them, I'd tell them to take a long walk off a short pier. The whole idea that a $90 million movie is better "written off" as a tax break than released in any format at all is beyond ridiculous and an insult to everyone who worked on it.

Absolutely awesome Seinfeld clip as a reference. "But they do. And they're the ones writing it off."

[MightyHypnotic]

So I have to amend my last statement, having read this article in Variety. I didn't realize this movie was intended to be streamed and not shown in theatres. For those that just want the synopsis, here ya go.

“Batgirl” found itself on the bad end of that decision, apparently neither big enough to feel worthy of a major theatrical release nor small enough to make economic sense in an increasingly cutthroat streaming landscape. Spending the money to expand the scope of “Batgirl” for theaters — plus the $30 million to $50 million needed to market it domestically and the tens of millions more needed for a global rollout — could have nearly doubled spending on the film, and insiders say that was a non-starter at a company newly focused on belt-tightening and the bottom line.

https://variety.com/2022/film/news/batg ... 235332062/

[Dogfish]

This seems like it's a much larger scale ratfucking of DC and its related properties than we first thought. Especially as the Batgirl movie apparently wasn't as bad in test screenings as the rumour mill immediately wanted to claim.

Have to think something like that is going to cause genuine damage to DC's reputation in the industry. I mean people got paid, but it was a mammoth waste of their time.

Seems like the guys running the show now are the worst kind of numbers driven executive stereotypes.

Joker 2 still on the cards but I wonder how much else is getting shitcanned.

[DrDominator9]

I thought I heard that the DC movie Supergirl was also getting cut but wasn't she a secondary character in The Ezra Miller Flash film. Or is that getting axed as well?

[Mr. X]

given the crap Ezra Miller is involved with I doubt they will be doing that movie

[sneakly]

The wheels maybe falling off the genre. A lot of stuff is getting scrapped quickly, creating the stink of death. Studios aren’t going to be willing to invest if they just watched $90 million go down the toilet. Hopefully, it will result in fewer but better quality. How long did it take to get over Batman and Robin or Superman 4?

[Visitor]

The new head took advantage of the tax write offs for change of ownership to cut some other stuff like the Wonder Twins movie. It allows them to quickly declare better earnings towards their goal fo $3 billion in cost savings.

I wonder why they kept the Flash movie since their lead can't do publicity with his toxic legal troubles.

So they are going with sequels of their current most successful movies: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam. No real attempts to do decent stories with lesser characters. Of course that may save us from another live action Green Lantern movie.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/war ... 47380.html

[ivandobsky]

Maybe that's why the film didn't look like it cost 90 million. Perhaps another movie will come out that looks like it cost 90 million but for official accounting purposes only cost 10 million.

[tallyho]

B-but the movie industry would never deceive the public!

To quote the legendary Chewitts ad, it's the end of civilisation as we know it...

[batgirl1969]

The new head took advantage of the tax write offs for change of ownership to cut some other stuff like the Wonder Twins movie. It allows them to quickly declare better earnings towards their goal fo $3 billion in cost savings.

NOOOOO!!! Not my sexually ambiguous loving weirdos the Wonder Twins!!! I had such high hope for the sexual escapades of these 2!!!
I was hoping for the awkward incest and peril they would find themselves in but oh well.....

[nome144]

There have been a number of comments that are suggesting that this is the prelude to a full reset triggered by the Flash movie. IF it is it might be a good thing. The whole DC media thing has been a chaotic mess for years. Maybe clearing the slate and starting over, NOT with origin stories of the Trinity cuz everyone knows their backgrounds. About the only actor I would miss is Gal Gadot.

[MightyHypnotic]

B-but the movie industry would never deceive the public!

To quote the legendary Chewitts ad, it's the end of civilisation as we know it...

You LOVE that Chewits ad!

[theScribbler]

[MercianComics]

What I hate about situations like this is the public doesn't get a chance to see it. They build the anticipation and then let us down in the worst way possible. I can deal with a dreadful movie but not getting to see it all is worse still. The Adrianne Palicki Wonder Woman pilot is another example. Fortunately, it was leaked. Even though it was bad, I was naively hoping for an official release.

[argento]

[argento]

[Dogfish]

Just saw in the similar topics panel we had a thread from four years ago about this movie.

Feels like it kind of illustrates the problem. Marvel would have made the movie. DC/WB dick around for half a decade, and then shitcan it at 90% done. Why even bother trying at this point?

Grab everything useful from the DCEU and swap it to Marvel and give it up. And by that I literally just mean get Margot Robbie to be Rogue.

Whole mess summed up in one neat video.

[batgirl1969]

So what if in the movie there is a pattern cutter Batgirl in bondage scene where she is lezzies out while strapped down by a villainess??? Guess we may never know.....

[swampy170]

Just saw in the similar topics panel we had a thread from four years ago about this movie.

Feels like it kind of illustrates the problem. Marvel would have made the movie. DC/WB dick around for half a decade, and then shitcan it at 90% done. Why even bother trying at this point?

Grab everything useful from the DCEU and swap it to Marvel and give it up. And by that I literally just mean get Margot Robbie to be Rogue.

Whole mess summed up in one neat video.

Have you SEEN the amount of money Disney have lost on all the stage 4 content to-date?!

Marvel aren't buying up anything.

The 10-year plan for DC should be a breath of fresh air - and actually see alot of the BS recently seen in mainstream superhero movies ripped out, in favour of more hopeful content that has always been the mainstay.

Less preaching, more being superheros.

They want billion dollar movies, not ones that will lose large sums of money (like Birds of Prey). We might actually get to see some superheros in superhero costumes! Not some sort of weird alt fashion.

Rejoyce!

[Dazzle1]

I think D.C and for that matter Marvel should focus on the non female counterparts of male heroes

Batgirl, Supergirl Spider Gwen, she Hulk will always be looked at as lesser in the non erotic super part of this genre

[Visitor]

WBD's announcement of a 10 year plan reminds me of all the former Soviet Union's 10 year plans. The idea sounded good until it failed and was replaced with a new one.

After the failure to make a Marvel style integrated universe, they are now going with make sequels and spin offs of the more successful movies. The Flash is the only one that had a minor role in the previous movies and the star may be in prison by the time it gets released. No real mention of how after years of badly written movies, they are going to fix their real problems.

Batgirl didn't even test that bay compared to other movies that get released. It just wasn't enough like a Marvel movie to go into a theater and they didn't want to build content for streaming service I suppose until it gets leaked we will never know what was wrong with it.

[Visitor]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/greg-berlant ... 31143.html

Rumors of how WBD might fix their problem by making Berlanti their version of Feige. If this. happens lets see how long it takes them to regret it. He had some great ideas, but after a few years they go overboard in his social agenda.

[sugarcoater]

Seems like a bad idea for someone to try and emulate someone else's project style, as that means doing something one is not typically accustomed to doing or good at doing (and there's the high probability of a dull and uninspiring project as the result of trying to copy something already done).

[ivandobsky]

Seems like a bad idea for someone to try and emulate ...

... a dull and uninspiring project

I'm not really a fan of the Marvel movies either.

[sugarcoater]

And upon further thought, the some other problems in emulating Marvel is 1) acknowledging Marvel has been and is doing things better, and 2) DC is the same as Marvel if what works for Marvel will naturally translate to what will work for DC.

[brdiy]

Rather than looking to Marvel, perhaps DC should look closer to home and take a serious look at the animated DC projects. Most of those direct to video releases are superior to many of the live action movies they have produced.

[Dogfish]

Looks like Warner and by extension DC and HBO Max are completely fucked. The whole enterprise is saddled with colossal debts now.

[DrDominator9]

Warner, DC and to a lesser extent HBO need to have some solid hits in the pipeline to pull off any semblance of a Marvel Phase 3/4 success level. A popular Shazam isn't going to turn things around. Aquaman, probably not that either unless the script is embedded with spin-off characters worthy of becoming a new Justice League. Their Superman franchise needs a full reboot. I'm not sure how their new Batman is going to springboard them into a next level success. Even Wonder Woman could be losing her luster in her third movie.

I am a long-time DC comics fan but man, they really screwed up the movie platform for themselves. Heck, even when they were killing it a few years back with the CW shows, even that has dried up to nothing. I hope that Warner and DC can pull up out of this nasty dive toward entertainment ground zero but I'm not all that optimistic.

[bushwackerbob]

I think what DC Comics really needs is a visionary leader like Marvel has with Kevin Feige. I don't think DC Comics has a Feige equivalent, or at least anybody with Feige's level of excellence or expertise. I read a Vanity Fair piece on Feige a couple years ago, he has his influence on everything Marvel, one gets the sense that there is a thoughtful, long term strategy in what, how, and when Marvel characters are introduced, films greenlit, and released.

[shevek]

I think what DC Comics really needs is a visionary leader like Marvel has with Kevin Feige. I don't think DC Comics has a Feige equivalent, or at least anybody with Feige's level of excellence or expertise. I read a Vanity Fair piece on Feige a couple years ago, he has his influence on everything Marvel, one gets the sense that there is a thoughtful, long term strategy in what, how, and when Marvel characters are introduced, films greenlit, and released.

Yes, they do: Geoff Johns. When his name is attached to a project, it works.
Up to him whether he'd want to take up such a weighty mantle. I don't think there's anyone else who can seriously do it, though.

I agree pretty much with everything Zaslav is doing to restructure. They have to get back to churning out superheroes. The only issue is whether it's too late to actually save DC Comics. It would be an incredible shame if they can't.

And...an update! On Shane Davis' Youtube channel, I discovered this article below from the Hollywood Reporter.
Not set in stone yet, but Zaslav is considering bringing in this guy, Dan Lin, to oversee all the Warner branches as their in-house Kevin Feige analogue.
He's the CEO of an already successful production company Rideback https://rideback.com/dan-lin/
which has helmed many of the Lego movies (all profitable, I would assume)
and also housed the production companies of David Ayer and Margot Robbie.

We'll see if that happens.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 235204760/

[Dogfish]

The elephant in the room as far as I've been able to tell is debt. I'm not up to speed on it all and somebody can probably fill in the blanks, but didn't AT&T get drawn into a merger with one or other of these companies, and then go sideways very hard, and saddle everybody with billions in debt?

It's a problem if they'll be having to service very large amounts of debt while also reducing budgets and their general output.

Whole thing just seems like an incredibly poorly thought out move and the real damage hasn't even really begun yet. The real damage will be the aftermath of this trainwreck when whatever is left tries to go forward.

Have to think the damage done to relationships with creatives won't be fixable either. They're out there destroying movies and shows. Literally taking them down and memory holing them. And to delete the existing work in progress on things like the Batgirl movie just seems spiteful, bordering on vandalism. It's disk space, they can't afford disk space now? They had to destroy months of work by the cast and crew? Dick move.

[shevek]

Have to think the damage done to relationships with creatives won't be fixable either. They're out there destroying movies and shows. Literally taking them down and memory holing them. And to delete the existing work in progress on things like the Batgirl movie just seems spiteful, bordering on vandalism. It's disk space, they can't afford disk space now? They had to destroy months of work by the cast and crew? Dick move.

Not just that. From what I've heard (don't hold me to it, but it seems to track), Warner is literally going to have a closed showing of the Batgirl
movie's raw edit to the 'creatives' who were involved in making it. And then they are going to put it in their vault forever and never show it.
That's not just a dick move - it's figuratively (not literally, as the kids like to say) a kind of torture.

Also, here's a quote from Ivory Aquino, the transgender actor who was going to portray Batgirl's transgender friend Alysia Yeoh, who appears in the latest run of the 'modern' Batgirl comics. In the comic, Alysia Yeoh steals a Bat-related costume (possibly belonging to Orphan aka Cassandra Cain - at least it looks like hers) and goes out to help Batgirl by wielding an actual baseball bat which is wrapped in a transgender rights flag. Very likely, there was probably going to be a scene similar to that in the film.

Ivory says: " “As much as Batgirl has been labeled a woke film, it simply came together that way because of writing that reflects the world we live in...For me, more than anything, it is a father-daughter story which hits close to home as my Dad passed a year ago, shortly before I booked this project, and I was hoping it would resonate with other children around the world, grown and not-so-grown, who hold their fathers in the highest esteem and who could see Batgirl as a story of that special bond.” This is straight from Ivory's Twitter account.

[Mr. X]

And then they are going to put it in their vault forever and never show it.
That's not just a dick move - it's figuratively (not literally, as the kids like to say) a kind of torture.

Why is it torture. No one wants to see it. Bury it in the salt flats.

[ivandobsky]

Perhaps you and I don't want to see it, but presumably some people do. Probably the actors' grans want to see it.

Is there some kind of legal issue with leaking it? Would it prevent it being used as a tax write off?

[Maskripper]

... No one wants to see it. ......

I love it when people have statements like that as these are wrong in 99,99999999999999% of all cases.
As in this one.
YOU don't wanna see it, some/many other people also don't wanna see it.
But there are still tons of people who would wanna see this movie.
Including me.
It's a BATGIRL movie! And even the worst Batgirl movie would be better than no Batgirl movie at all...in my opinion.
(NOT saying that this movie is bad, as I can't watch it)
I mean yeah, I am not really thrilled by the choice of Leslie Grace and even less thrilled by that "costume" (cowl is ok).
But I am really angry about the decision to just not showing it after all the work that went into it.
And the reasoning behind that is just insane.... #taxes
That system has some serious flaws if that really is the better option (not releasing it).
I am ....quite....angry now at WB.
I have a slim hope it might be leaked someday, even if that would be an unfinished version.

[Dogfish]

Yeah it seems utterly insane that the system, while working as intended, rewards destruction of assets with a tax break. How is that productive? How is that capitalism?

[Visitor]

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/hbo ... 00143.html

They are cutting costs wherever they find them. Removing shows so they won't have to pay for airing them if they don't vying n enough viewers. As long as they don't lose too many viewers, then they don't care.

Watch Harley Quinn season 3 episode 1 when Harley and Ivy are in the Fortress of Solitude watching HBO Max and Syperman is upset that they signed him up for it when he only used the free subscription trial period to save money.

[Dogfish]

I am watching the hell out of Harley Quinn season 3. They've already shitcanned a Batman project from the guy behind the 90s animated series (which I maintain is probably the best Batman thing ever and which probably would have been a 'can't miss' kind of show) so Harley's probably fucked as far as renewal goes.

[bushwackerbob]

It is a simple thing really, you make a film and then suddenly shelve it, it piques folks curiosity, it makes folks want to see the film all the more, even if it does suck. Folks were clamoring for Snyder's cut Justice League as well, curiosity over these behind-the-scenes shenanigans makes folks want to see these films even more, telling folks there is forbidden fruit out there makes them want it more, not less, simple psychology.

[ivandobsky]

They can make a new film where batgirl infiltrates WB HQ and breaks the 4th wall of the vault to retrieve the lost film.

[DrDominator9]

A very arch concept there, ivandobsky! Proscienium arch, I'd say.

[Mr. X]

They've already shitcanned a Batman project from the guy behind the 90s animated series (which I maintain is probably the best Batman thing ever and which probably would have been a 'can't miss' kind of show) so Harley's probably fucked as far as renewal goes.

You're referring to Paul Dini? Yeahh... he's not the 1990 Paul Dini anymore. The brain parasites got to him. You ain't going to be seeing Vixen's butt in the camera anymore from him.

[Danorian]

What I hate about situations like this is the public doesn't get a chance to see it. They build the anticipation and then let us down in the worst way possible. I can deal with a dreadful movie but not getting to see it all is worse still. The Adrianne Palicki Wonder Woman pilot is another example. Fortunately, it was leaked. Even though it was bad, I was naively hoping for an official release.

I did some digging, and found my FULL copy of the Wonder Woman pilot. Uploaded it at: https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aiq_RsXFNT0chJ1y2l0 ... w?e=LQATlh

Note: I'll be taking it back down next week.
Enjoy! (or not?)

[tallyho]

I'm not sure to thank you for that...

[MercianComics]

I did some digging, and found my FULL copy of the Wonder Woman pilot. Uploaded it at: https://1drv.ms/v/s!Aiq_RsXFNT0chJ1y2l0 ... w?e=LQATlh

Note: I'll be taking it back down next week.
Enjoy! (or not?)

Hi, Danorian, I've only noticed this tonight as I signed in. Sounds like I missed something interesting. Any of chance of reuploading it? Otherwise, that's okay. Thanks.

[ivandobsky]

Maybe same as this:

[MercianComics]

Maybe same as this:

I've seen this version, thanks. It's been around for many years.

[Dogfish]

Another week and Warner's death spiral deepening.

https://deadline.com/2022/10/warner-bro ... 235141732/

Warner Bros Television is cutting more than a quarter of its workforce as part of its parent company’s drive to cut costs.

The studio is cutting 26% of personnel, a total of 125 positions, across scripted, unscripted and animation.

[Alice]

The fusion of WB and discovery was, in my opinion, an intentional shot in the knee

[Danorian]

The fusion of WB and discovery was, in my opinion, an intentional shot in the knee

More like a repeated lead pipe to it IMHO! Sorta like what Joker did to Jason Todd in Death in the Family!