BATGIRL: More Details Emerge About Why Exactly Warner Bros. Decided To Scrap The DC Comics Movie

BATGIRL: More Details Emerge About Why Exactly Warner Bros. Decided To Scrap The DC Comics Movie

New details have emerged regarding Warner Bros.' shocking decision to scrap Batgirl, including whether there's any chance we could ultimately see the movie in some form and the studio's official statement.

By JoshWilding - Aug 03, 2022 06:08 AM EST
Filed Under: Batgirl
Source: Variety

Last night, news broke that Warner Bros. Discovery has decided to scrap Batgirl. The news sent shockwaves across the DC fandom, especially after the studio spent $90 million on a movie which is in the midst of post-production. Fans can't understand why the nearly completed Batgirl would be forever shelved, but we now have new details from Variety

While there have been rumblings that the studio was unhappy with the quality of the movie, the trade has been told that the reason for it being sidelined is far more simple: taxes. 

With new CEO David Zaslav moving away from the idea of producing features for HBO Max, the plan at Warner Bros. is to make DC Comics movies that feel worthy of the big screen. Batgirl, which immediately came under fire from some fans for featuring what they deemed to be a poor-quality costume compared to those seen on The CW, didn't fit that vision. 

It's said that the studio, now looking to tighten its bottom line, wasn't willing to spend tens of millions of dollars marketing the movie for theaters or streaming (those costs could have been as expensive as the production budget).

By shelving Batgirl and not releasing it in any way, Warner Bros. can now take a tax write-down that can help it recoup its costs. The movie's cancellation will be put down to a post-merger change of strategy, but that will mean the studio can never monetize Batgirl, whether it be through HBO Max or by selling it to another studio.

In other words, short of a huge leak, we'll never get to see this movie. 

"The decision to not release Batgirl reflects our leadership’s strategic shift as it relates to the DC universe and HBO Max," a Warner Bros. spokesperson said in a statement yesterday, "Leslie Grace is an incredibly talented actor and this decision is not a reflection of her performance. We are incredibly grateful to the filmmakers of Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt and their respective casts and we hope to collaborate with everyone again in the near future."

It feels like Batgirl is being treated akin to a very expensive television pilot that was made and finished, but isn't destined to ever be released (like the Game of Thrones prequel starring Naomi Watts and Adrianne Palicki's Wonder Woman).

Despite that, it's honestly hard to believe we'll never get to see Batgirl, a movie that included the return of J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon and Michael Keaton as Batman. Casting a diverse lead in Leslie Grace was a big step forward for the DCEU, while it remains unlikely that Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah delivered a bad movie based on their previous work. 

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SheepishOne
SheepishOne - 8/3/2022, 6:34 AM
If they're already in the business of scraping completed films, they might as well reboot their cinematic universe and scrap The Flash. Go ahead and release Shazam, Aquaman, and Black Adam on streaming and then focus on a plan to rebuild, starting with a new Superman film.

Otherwise, I'd rather they just release disconnect director-focused films like The Batman and Joker, and let the filmmakers essentially just have fun with it.
19Batman84
19Batman84 - 8/3/2022, 8:19 AM
@SheepishOne - The should reboot the universe with the batman but just not male every movie in that dark tone. Each character should have their tone of movie and they can eventually do a good JL movie but they need to do it properly and not just try to play catch up with marvel its far to late for that and their first try was pretty disastrously
thewanderer
thewanderer - 8/3/2022, 8:21 AM
@SheepishOne - it's a tricky situation in how to handle the DCEU currently. They're casting very well, but many of the projects have been underwhelming or a mess like The Flash situation.

Do you try to course correct a well casted DCEU, or start from scratch?
bobevanz
bobevanz - 8/3/2022, 6:38 AM
To scrap this and Scoob when they're already finished, aside from reshoots for Batgirl, there's no reason why they couldn't release them on the Maxx..
TheBlueMorpho
TheBlueMorpho - 8/3/2022, 7:14 AM
@bobevanz -

Well the reason for Batgirl is stated pretty clearly. If they want any of the money spent on the movie back they can't release it in any way. Business first.
Ajax36
Ajax36 - 8/3/2022, 8:01 AM
@TheBlueMorpho - I don’t understand how you can ever be better off trying not to sell a completed product. Unless the tax rate is over 100% you are always better off to make some money.
TheBlueMorpho
TheBlueMorpho - 8/3/2022, 10:01 AM
@Ajax36 -

They know the ins and outs of their finances. Something we will never be privy to. So they must figure this is the best option for them. Sucks for the actors involved seeing this could have been there big break.
REMIMARKS
REMIMARKS - 8/3/2022, 6:44 AM
You gotta feel bad for the cast that put in the work for this film. Especially the star of the film.
KWilly
KWilly - 8/3/2022, 7:01 AM
@REMIMARKS - Ikr? First thing I thought of was Leslie Grace, cuz I know she was excited for this to be her big break. Prolly cried like no tomorrow hearing this.
MosquitoFarmer
MosquitoFarmer - 8/3/2022, 7:53 AM
@REMIMARKS - Heck, I'd say to the crew as well. Movie productions are a lot of work all around. Obviously they're getting paid (though the stars may have been poised to earn more upon release), but they were excited for people to see this film.
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 8/3/2022, 6:44 AM
Supposedly this was time-sensitive to a mid-August deadline on the write-down. Zaslav is supposedly VERY against the streaming exclusive and hybrid ‘day-and-date’ models that his predecessor attempted to bully pulpit as the ‘new normal.’ Zaslav is a ‘bottom-line’ guy who wants concrete numbers, not theoreticals and the HBO Max strategy was not working. Also, the test screenings were supposedly not as bad as some on this site are attempting to posit, as the test audiences were made well aware pre-screening that some of tbe shots were still incomplete and that they were therefore analyzing an incomplete product so as to temper expectations accordingly. The tax write-off, per Deadline, is the REAL component in play here. It was too good an opportunity to pass up given where the entire DC franchise currently sits.
Ajax36
Ajax36 - 8/3/2022, 7:52 AM
@SauronthePower - I don’t understand USA tax law being Australian, but how can a tax write off be better than recovering some money for a completed movie?

Wouldn’t it be better to sell it to Netflix or Amazon Prime get a few million for it and write off the rest of the losses.
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 8/3/2022, 11:49 AM
@Ajax36 - apparently they are able to offload the losses as a part of the actual Discovery acquisition of WB but, since that has been in the pipe for many months now, they were up against something like a two week window to make that happen. It sounds to me like former ownership gets saddled with the actual debt but is compensated by the totality of the sale price being far higher
Conquistador
Conquistador - 8/3/2022, 6:48 AM
I bet some one does a Ryan Reynolds and leaks it around Christmas.

It's a shame really.. even if its a dud I was looking forward to seeing what they came up with. Adil and Bilal have proven themselves as capable directors in my opinion.
mdwilliamson24
mdwilliamson24 - 8/3/2022, 7:14 AM
@UniqNo - That was my initial thought, why not release it even if it's bad. I doubt it would be as bad as Catwoman and it was released.
Batgirl may have bombed in the theater but it could have recouped 30, 40, 60 million back to mitigate losses.
But I know there are other factors involved that we all don't know about.
TheBlueMorpho
TheBlueMorpho - 8/3/2022, 7:19 AM
@mdwilliamson24 -

The factor is stated in the article.

"By shelving Batgirl and not releasing it in any way, Warner Bros. can now take a tax write-down that can help it recoup its costs."

So they think not releasing the movie at all will save them more money then releasing it and having to market it.
Conquistador
Conquistador - 8/3/2022, 7:21 AM
@mdwilliamson24 - Yeah I think if it gets monetized they'll have to pay more than they could potentially recoup. It will also set a bad precedent for the future releases and interconnecting they're trying with DC...i'M assuming.. but they still have the batman 2 and joker 2 coming out so who knows.

I think the best chance we have is if it gets leaked. I don't expect there to be a deep enough fanbase yet for this as we've seen next to nothing substantial enough to campaign for its release.
HagridsHole1
HagridsHole1 - 8/3/2022, 6:50 AM
The real tragedy in all of this is not seeing more of Brendan Fraser, who is having something of a resurgence in recent times, and that’s all I have to say about that
Superspecialawesomeguy
Superspecialawesomeguy - 8/3/2022, 7:06 AM
@HagridsHole1 - One of the few positive takeaways from this is that this could be a chance for him to get a bigger DC character; I always thought Firefly was a less interesting character for him to play tbh.
Fares
Fares - 8/3/2022, 6:54 AM
Makes sense. I don't have to like it, but I can't fault them for it.
Radders
Radders - 8/3/2022, 6:55 AM
"Casting a diverse lead in Leslie Grace was a big step forward for the DCEU" did they miss Jason Mamoa
DarkDetective
DarkDetective - 8/3/2022, 8:31 AM
@Radders - or gal gadot
TheBlueMorpho
TheBlueMorpho - 8/3/2022, 6:56 AM


LSHF
LSHF - 8/3/2022, 7:02 AM
"...we hope to collaborate with everyone again in the near future."

You mean, like WB collaborated with them on this film?
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