While it once seemed improbable, it looks like Coyote vs. Acme may soon be coming to a theater near you!
According to Deadline, Ketchup Entertainment is in advanced negotiations to acquire the animated/live-action hybrid feature from Warner Bros, in a deal that's estimated to be in the $50 million range. The independent distributer-financier previously rescued The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, which is currently playing in theaters.
In recent years, Ketchup has also been behind the releases of Weekend in Taipei, Goodrich, Hellboy: The Crooked Man, Memory, Ferrari, Hypnotic, and Bushwick.
The trade does note that the deal could still fall apart, but things are progressing in the right direction for now. If/when the deal is finalized, expect to see Coyote vs. Acme hit theaters sometime in 2026.
The studio previously tried to sell the film early last year for approximately $70 million, which is believed to be in the same range as the film's budget, but there were no takers at the time.
The film stars Will Forte (MacGruber; The Last Man on Earth; Nebraska), John Cena (Peacemaker; The Suicide Squad; Fast X), Lana Condor (To All the Boys I've Loved Before; Deadly Class; X-Men: Apocalypse), P. J. Byrne (The Wolf of Wall Street; Big Little Lies; The Legend of Korra), Tone Bell (The Flash; Disjointed; Whitney), Martha Kelly (Euphoria; Baskets; Marriage Story), and Eric Bauza (Looney Tunes Cartoons; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special).
David Green was in the director's chair, with a screenplay from Samy Burch. James Gunn and Jeremy Slater also contributed to the film's story, with Gunn also attached as a producer alongside Chris DeFaria.
Prior to its shelving, the feature had tested well, but was scrapped as a tax write-off, drawing the ire of many in the industry, including Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse producer Phil Lord, who said, “Is it anticompetitive if one of the biggest movie studios in the worlds shuns the marketplace in order to use a tax loophole to write off an entire movie so they can more easily merge with one of the bigger movie studios in the world? Cause it SEEMS anticompetitive.”
The film's leading man Will Forte was more blunt in his assessment, calling the move “[frick]ing bullshit,” before adding, “I can’t tell you possibly why the decision was made to not release it. But it makes my blood boil.”
Other write-offs at the time were Batgirl and Scoob Holiday Haunt!. Whether or not either of those films could now find similar distribution remains to be seen, but we certainly can't rule it out with this latest development.