Batgirl (2022) (1 Viewer)

[Colin Jacobson]

I think a good portion of that media attention was due to Michael Keaton getting back into the Batsuit for this movie. It was a pretty big deal, both for this film and for The Flash, that's received a lot of coverage.

I think the coverage is mostly due to a DCEU movie getting "canceled" period.

Anyway, point remains that it was news beyond just movie nerds.

 

[dpippel]

I think the coverage is mostly due to a DCEU movie getting "canceled" period.

Anyway, point remains that it was news beyond just movie nerds.

I was talking about the media attention the film received before WB announced they were canning it. It was already on a percentage of the general public's radar because of Keaton reprising his role.

 

[Malcolm R]

And not just canceled, but nearly complete then tossed. There have always been movies where the studio changes their mind after an announcement or pulls the plug during early pre-production, but I'm not sure how many major studio films have been nearing completion then just tossed on the trash heap.

 

[mskaye]

The lingering question in my mind is, if a bidder were to come along and wanted to buy the film, couldn't they do that? So long as the price they paid included enough cash to undo the write-off that they will be claiming for the unseen film (repay the IRS any tax benefit they gained), plus a tidy bit of profit for the studio? Surely any tax benefit they receive could be repaid if a buyer came along.. isn't that the case?

I am not in any way suggesting there's a chance of this, of course.

And not just canceled, but nearly complete then tossed. There have always been movies where the studio changes their mind after an announcement or pulls the plug during early pre-production, but I'm not sure how many major studio films have been nearing completion then just tossed on the trash heap.

When things don't really seem to make logical sense, the answer is usually: MONEY.

 

[Sean Bryan]

 

[Sean Bryan]

 

[Alex...]

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

It does seem a massive waste to have spent the money and done the work and at the finish line you throw it in the trash.

What happened to all these people that worked so hard on this picture? Doesn't their work deserve to be seen?

 

[Ross Gowland]

People in Hollywood are developing films all the time, a large chunk of which will never get released.

The concept of “deserve to be seen” is meaningless, really. All the films we see out of Los Angeles are because a handful of Hollywood Emperors looked at the circus below them and gave the thumbs up.

Batgirl, Scoob 2, and House Party got the thumbs down by the new Emperor. So it goes…

This week Scoob 2’s score is being recorded. The studio had already been booked and the musicians paid for so the producer decided to go ahead and tape music for a scrapped film. Seems like an exercise in futility to me, but a harmless one.

It must be very frustrating to work on a film that never gets made, but it happens constantly. It always has.

 

[BobO'Link]

If it were me, I'd like my work to be seen/heard but also don't think I'd care all that much just as long as I got paid. I'd think the people with the biggest issue would be those who signed contracts calling for a percentage of residual profit and less up front money. All they'll see is that base contract amount.

 

[Ross Gowland]

I'd think the people with the biggest issue would be those who signed contracts calling for a percentage of residual profit and less up front money. All they'll see is that base contract amount.

This was being made for direct to streaming, so that wouldn’t be an issue in this case. It might be for The Flash, though.

 

[BobO'Link]

This was being made for direct to streaming, so that wouldn’t be an issue in this case. It might be for The Flash, though.

It could still be an issue for streaming, mainly for producer/director/cast as they'd likely have a contract that calls for residual payments for use on other services or when it's renewed for additional use. I'm not familiar with how residuals work for streaming of video products but it could be those people are paid a small amount for every time the product is streamed - like with music.

 

[dpippel]

It must be very frustrating to work on a film that never gets made, but it happens constantly. It always has.

I'd argue that it doesn't happen constantly to films like Batgirl which are quite far along in their production with a significant amount of a large budget already spent. This is a fairly unique situation, is it not?

 

[Malcolm R]

I'd argue that it doesn't happen constantly to films like Batgirl which are quite far along in their production with a significant amount of a large budget already spent. This is a fairly unique situation, is it not?

I think that's relatively unique. The merger process between Warner and Discovery has allowed certain tax options that the new owners are taking advantage of in killing some of these projects late in production. If there was no way for them to recover the money already spent via this process, there likely would have been a different outcome.

 

[Edwin-S]

Why would you bother test screening a film meant for TV distribution via a streaming service? HBO Max already has the money from subscribers. Prople are going to watch or not watch whatever is put on the service since they are already subscribed. The subscribed audience is the test, so why bother testing a film that wasn't relying on box office success?

 

[Ross Gowland]

I'd argue that it doesn't happen constantly to films like Batgirl which are quite far along in their production with a significant amount of a large budget already spent. This is a fairly unique situation, is it not?

It’s not unique, no, but it’s a lot rarer than cancelling films in the pre-production stage.

Films that have been aborted during production or post production in the past fifteen or so years would include a remake of Revenge of the Nerds, the sequel to 10 Things I Hate About You, and a biopic of Gore Vidal.

There are also films that were completed and never released. The Oz Magazine film Hippie Hippie Shake springs to mind.

Very frustrating for those who worked on them, I’m sure.

 

[dpippel]

It’s not unique, no, but it’s a lot rarer than cancelling films in the pre-production stage.

Films that have been aborted during production or post production in the past fifteen or so years would include a remake of Revenge of the Nerds, the sequel to 10 Things I Hate About You, and a biopic of Gore Vidal.

There are also films that were completed and never released. The Oz Magazine film Hippie Hippie Shake springs to mind.

Very frustrating for those who worked on them, I’m sure.

I'm sure. But with Batgirl, the big difference is the budget and how much money has already been spent on the film. None of the projects you mention are anywhere near $90 million productions. As Malcolm pointed out, this is a unique situation due to the merger and the legal landscape that allowed WB to can the movie as a tax write-off. If that hadn't been an avenue available to them, I doubt they would have canceled.

 

[Ross Gowland]

Possibly. But they’re ploughing millions into Aquaman reshoots and have delayed it. Zaslav said that the DC superheroes are top of the list in importance to him and he wants them on the big screen only and he wants them done right.

The tax write off made it an easy decision, but maybe he saw Batgirl as damaging the brand or leading it in the wrong direction. At the investor call he did say that he wouldn’t be releasing DC films if they weren’t happy with them.

So he might have pulled the plug anyway.

 

[dpippel]

Possibly. But they’re ploughing millions into Aquaman reshoots and have delayed it. Zaslav said that the DC superheroes are top of the list in importance to him and he wants them on the big screen only and he wants them done right.

The tax write off made it an easy decision, but maybe he saw Batgirl as damaging the brand or leading it in the wrong direction. At the investor call he did say that he wouldn’t be releasing DC films if they weren’t happy with them.

So he might have pulled the plug anyway.

Possibly, but in that scenario it would have been a VERY expensive move.

 

[Ross Gowland]

I guess if they do reshoot The Flash with a new actor then we’ll know that money is no object to getting DC films back on course. Playing the long game, as it were.