'Batgirl' Movie Axed at Warner Bros. - Variety Apparently this was already in the can, but they decide not to release it to any platform, including HBO Max. Why would you do that? With all the mediocre stuff out there, how bad could it be to throw $90M down the drain?
WTF? I was looking forward to checking it out. Why not just release it? What a shame. (On a cynical level doesn't Warner Brothers want the extra income from Batgirl Halloween costumes in the fall?? ) So is the intent that they're going to redo it?
Maybe they finally came up with a plan on what to do with the DCEU and associated IP. it could be this film ran counter to those plans.
David Zaslov has been making big, bold moves with Warner Brothers since Discovery acquired it. Everything's pointing to some big, radical vision he has for the future of the DCEU, and it don't seem to include or care for the "Snyderverse" or any of the current DCEU projects. Batgirl was created specifically for the streaming service, not for theatrical release. Warner Brothers Discovery will announce its 2Q results on Thursday. Maybe we will hear some big news about their future plans for their streaming services and the DC Extended Universe, which may or may not shine light on why Batgirl was shelved. They also announced this week that the "Flash" TV show will end with an abbreviated final season. Lot of the old is getting thrown out ... I am interested in seeing what will happen to the "Flash" movie: with the very troubling Ezra Miller drama, very hard to see how they can release that movie, and I can't them spending $100MM to reshoot everything and redo effects with another actor.
Outsider perspective is that David Zaslov is cancelling everything because he’s panicking and is hoping this (not just Batgirl, everything) will look decisive rather than insane. But I’d bet he won’t be in charge of WB in a year.
Or maybe it's just in the ignominious tradition of a new executive canceling every project by his predecessor. Plenty of musicians had their careers scuttled because there were too closely associated with the previous label president.
Must be 'real' bad to cancel the whole film and lose 100 million dollars! Still, how many times can you keep milking the same ol' cow?
Still, how many times can you keep milking the same ol' cow? It's not one of my knowledgable subjects but I believe that the principle with the average ol' cow is to milk it once (or twice?) a day, every day. Comic book fantasy has become the basic diet of so many people that I'm sure Warners' intentions involve rather a lot of future milking. As I've never been captive in that particular pasture I probably won't notice.
Batgirl test screenings for audiences were so poor, Warner decided to cut its losses and run: 'Batgirl' movie gets 'shelved' by Warner Bros: source According to Variety, it was done for tax purposes: 'Batgirl' Movie Not Releasing: Why Warner Bros. Won't Debut DC Film - Variety It was bad according to several sources I've read.
What kills me is Michael Keaton as Batman. JK Simmons as Commissioner Gordon. The rumour is one of the side characters is trans and they were worried about backlash.
Even with NDAs, I find it hard to believe that test screenings could take place in this day and age without comments from participants coming out on Twitter etc.
How bad does a movie have to be for DC to proclaim it would do "irreparable harm" to their brand? Worse than Batman v. Superman or Justice League? I mean good lord, they have Steel, Supergirl, Batman & Robin and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace in their long-term stable. Could it really be worse than all those actually released films? I feel bad for Michael Keaton and Brendan Fraser but at least they got paid I guess..
Some of those films killed their franchises for years afterwards, so if you've got a film as bad as say, Batman & Robin there is a case from learning from history. No doubt Batgirl will leak out online before long, anyway.
Warner Discovery says it is money that matters. Discovery is the Joe Manchin of the entertainment world.
What are DC even thinking with this move? They are a mess, and they’ve consistently been a mess the last 20+ years except for the Batman movies and a couple others.
From what I was seeing yesterday, it only got to the rough edit stage, and has never been screened for the public.
Given how crappy a lot of commercial releases are and how even crappier a lot of straight-to-streaming service releases are, it's kind of hard to imagine just how bad this movie has to be to not get even a streaming release. You can take the same tax write-offs even if you release it to streaming, and you don't have to pour more money into it to dump it to a streaming platform. Unless it is so terrible, they think it would irreparably harm the franchise. And that would have to be very, very terrible--as some stinkers have been released over the years.