Something Wile E this way comes: how the Looney Toons reboot movie came back from the dead
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- Dave Green directed "Coyote vs Acme," a live-action/animation courtroom drama starring Will Forte against Looney Tunes characters including Foghorn Leghorn, Porky Pig, and Bugs Bunny, inspired by a 1990 New Yorker article by Ian Frazier in which Wile E. Coyote sues Acme.
- Warner Bros. shelved the $70M film in 2023 — just three months after filming wrapped — alongside Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt as part of a major tax write-off, with Forte comparing a later crew screening to "a funeral screening."
- Will Forte told Entertainment Weekly the cancellation left him with "extreme frustration, fiery frustration, a lot of anger, white-hot anger," and his wife urged him to treat it as "a grieving process" after he drafted scorched-earth social posts.
- Steven Price, the Oscar-winning Gravity composer, shared a clip of his film score recorded with an orchestra and choir at Abbey Road "because no one will see it now" — the post reached 6.8 million views.
- Ketchup Entertainment purchased the film for about $50 million last year, and a global release is now imminent.
- Green said the film mirrored its own story: "we are here because everyone spoke out on its behalf," adding, "It feels like a miracle."
Why it matters: Warner Bros. wrote off three films in 2023 as a tax maneuver, but the shelved "Coyote vs Acme" turned into a viral underdog story — boosted by a 6.8M-view score clip from Oscar-winning composer Steven Price and Will Forte's public anger. Ketchup Entertainment's roughly $50M acquisition proves the shelved Looney Tunes title still commanded real market value after the write-off, with hundreds of millions in potential ticket revenue now headed to a buyer rather than the original studio.
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