Warner Bros. Discovery has been getting more attention lately for the movies it’s shelved than released. First it was Batgirl, but there has been more uproar from fans and filmmakers over the live-action Coyote vs. Acme starring John Cena, Lana Condor, and Will Forte. The studio put it on ice to save approximately $30M in tax write-offs, and now Variety says the film could have a new home soon.
Ketchup Entertainment is close to acquiring distribution rights to Coyote vs. Acme. The cost? Early reports are it could be $50M, a hefty sum for the Looney Tunes-inspired movie. But then again, Ketchup saw limited success just last weekend when it released The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie to a $3.9M debut. That film was another it acquired from WB when it was shopped around last year. Perhaps Ketchup is looking to make Looney Tunes a brand it can cultivate for itself.
Ketchup Entertainment has been around since 2011 and they have always been a distributor of smaller movies and projects that other studios have shied away from. Some of its recent output were Robert Rodriguez’s Hypnotic, Goodrich with Michael Keaton, Hellboy: The Crooked Man, Lost in Taipei with Luke Evans, and Memory starring Jessica Chastain.
There’s a chance for Coyote vs. Acme to be Ketchup’s biggest film yet. There’s enough curiosity surrounding the film, plus it packs a lot of star power and a familiar Roadrunner/Coyote dynamic that could attract an audience looking for a bit of nostalgia. Perhaps a trailer is right around the corner?
