If you think scrapping projects like Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme as tax right-offs was easy, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav says think again.
Zaslav appeared at the New York Times Dealbook Summit in New York this past week and dropped some major headlines concerning his controversial choice to can Batgirl, the Scoob! sequel Scoob! Holiday Haunt, and more recently, Coyote vs. Acme.
The exec claims that deciding not to release a project takes “courage,” adding that it “requires very hard decisions” and “many of them are unpopular.”
Zaslav states, “What content is going to help us win? The content that wasn’t, we made a strategic decision on. It was difficult, and it was painful. But I think it was the right decision for the company, and it was necessary.”
He concludes, “It’s a very scary time, but it’s also an exciting time because of what’s possible. We were the first ones through. We needed to get healthy and needed to build a real business around this company.”
SEE ALSO: Batgirl star Leslie Grace opens about the movie’s devastating cancellation
Batgirl was directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, with Leslie Grace, Michael Keaton, J.K. Simmons, and Brendan Fraser featuring in the cast.
Among the cast of Coyote Vs. Acme was Will Forte, John Cena, and Lana Condor, with Forte as Coyote’s lawyer and Cena as ACME’s former boss. David Green (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows) directed the film, from a script by Samy Brunch, Jeremy Slater, and James Gunn.
Warner Bros. gave Coyote Vs. Acme an option to be sold to new companies by shopping the project; Batgirl and the Scoob! sequel were not given that chance.
