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Batgirl farce: Warner Bros’ decision to scrap DC film defies history of releasing duds

Batgirl farce: Warner Bros' decision to scrap DC film defies history of releasing duds

This week the news broke that Warner Bros had “shelved” the upcoming comic book film batgirl.

The surprise move means the $100 million movie, which had already been filmed, will never be released on streaming services as previously planned.

Initial reports suggested the problem was the film’s quality – supposedly, it was so bad that it had been declared “irredeemable”.

Subsequent reports have suggested the study actually ditched it for cynical tax reasons.

A Warner Bros spokesperson said in an official statement that the choice to scrap batgirl was due to a “strategic shift as it relates to the DC universe and HBO Max”.

Whatever the true reason, the sudden axing has left the cast and crew of the DC flick stunned and moviegoers outraged.

“We are saddened and shocked by the news,” directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah wrote in their response to the film being cancelled.

“We still can’t believe it. As directors, it is critical that our work be shown to audiences, and while the film was far from finished, we wish that fans all over the world would have had the opportunity to see and embrace the final film themselves.

“Maybe one day they will.”

As a DC fan and film buff, I hope the directors are right. Let us watch the film, judge it for ourselves, and perhaps even enjoy it. Honestly, how bad can it be?

It’s not as though the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) has a track record of only releasing certified masterpieces. Unlike its Marvel counterpart, the DCEU has included some absolute dud movies, all of them released quite happily by Warner Bros.

You may recall, for example, 1997’s batman and robin.

Considered the lowest rated Batman flick (12 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes), it’s filled with terrible dialogue (Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze one-liner “Who killed the dinosaurs? The ice age!), awful costumes (nipples on the Batsuit!) and horrendous production designs.

Coincidentally, it also featured the cinematic debut of Batgirl, played by Alicia Silverstone in a supporting role.

How about 2004’s cat woman? The movie was a cat-astrophe, and its lead star Halle Berry was so poor that she won a Razzie.

Or how about 2011’s Green Lantern? The film that was meant to launch the DCEU was visually overwhelming, overproduced and badly written.

All three of these films had glaringly obvious flaws, and have gone down in history as being among the worst superhero films of all time. No one at Warner Bros stopped them from being released to the public.

How many different iterations of Batman have we seen, of wildly varying quality, over the years? The studio has never stopped making them.

This was the first time we were going to see Batgirl in the lead role – an intriguing premise. The movie had already been filmed. If any subpar flick were going to be saved, this was it.

yet Este is the film, rather than any of the duds above, that has fallen victim to Warner Bros’ apparent quality standards.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, batgirl had landed a score in the low 60s at its only test screening.

That is not a stellar rating, but as THR noted, test screenings are not the final judgment for a movie – and other films with comparable test scores have gone on to be successful at the box office. Wildly successful, in some cases. The Stephen King adaptation Itemfor example, grossed more than $US700 million globally.

If the studio was so concerned about batgirl and wanted to save the DCEU, why not postpone the movie and do reshoots?

It’s happened with other comic book films: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (almost $US1 billion at the box office), 2019’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix ($US250 million) and 2015’s Fantastic Four ($US168 million) to name a few.

None of these were masterpieces, but they got released, and DCEU fans got to judge them on their merits.

That’s all the directors of batgirl SE busca. They’ve been robbed of that chance, for reasons that increasing and sound as though they have more to do with money than passion or concern for the source material.

Maybe batgirl is the disaster it was first described as. Let’s find out. Put it on the streaming services. Give us a chance to watch it and decide for ourselves.

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Batgirl star Leslie Grace thanks fans, directors ‘shocked’ at movie’s axing

Batgirl stands solemnly by a stone pillar, casting a shadow onto it.

The directors of the scrapped Batgirl movie say they are shocked by the news their work won’t make it to screens.

Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah responded to the axing alongside star Leslie Grace who described the seven months of “hard work” that went into filming.

Warner Brothers opted to shelve the $90-million movie planned for subscription service HBO Max as the reorganized studio revamps its approach to streaming and DC Comic films.

The decision has sent shock waves through the industry with the directors and cast taking to social media to express their disappointment.

“We are saddened and shocked by the news. We still can’t believe it,” El Arbi and Fallah said in a statement posted online.

“As directors, it is critical that our work be shown to audiences and, while the film was far from finished, we wish that fans all over the world would have had the opportunity to see and embrace the final film themselves.

“Maybe one day they will.”

The duo, best known for Bad Boys for Life and episodes of Ms Marvel, thanked their “amazing cast and crew” including Grace, who said they portrayed Batgirl with passion, dedication and humanity.

Grace, who previously starred in In the Heights, posted to social media a “thank you” to every Batgirl fan for their belief and allowing her to become her “own damn hero.”

Anthony Ramos and Melissa Barrera, a young Latinx couple dancing in the street, In The Heights
Grace, with actor Corey Hawkins, previously starred in In The Heights.(Supplied: Warner Bros./Macall Polay)

“On the heels of the recent news about our movie Batgirl, I am proud of the love, hard work and intention all of our incredible cast and tireless crew put into this film over seven months in Scotland,” she said.

“I feel blessed to have worked among absolute greats and forged relationships for a lifetime in the process.”

The film’s production wrapped up in April but instead of making it to a streaming debut or cinemas, Warner Brothers decided to completely write off the film which was given the green light before the company’s merger with Discovery Inc.

Warner Brothers Discovery on Thursday reported its second-quarter 2022 earnings during a meeting in which a Deutsche Bank analyst asked CEO David Zaslav about the decision to kill the movie.

“This idea of ​​expensive films going direct to screening, we can’t find an economic case for it,” Zaslav said.

“We can’t find an economic value for it so we’re making a strategic shift.”

Zaslav added Warner Brothers Discovery wasn’t going to put a movie out unless the company believed in it.

“We’re not going to release any film before it’s ready,” he said.

“We’re not going to release a film to make a quarter.”

An early cut of Batgirl had recently undergone one test screening.

While its scores weren’t good, poor test results aren’t rare for Warner Brothers.

The movie wasn’t as pricey as many superhero films, which typically cost $150-200 million to make, but it was a bigger budget movie for an HBO Max title.

ABC/AP

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Entertainment

Batgirl movie ‘shelved’ by DC Comics

Batgirl movie 'shelved' by DC Comics

Holy millions down the drain, Batman!

The DC Comics film batgirl will be completely “shelved” by Warner Bros, a top Hollywood source told new york post.

That means it won’t hit theaters or the US streaming service HBO Max. Fans will not see it.

The reportedly $100 million movie (the source said the budget was actually more than $140 million), which was doing test screenings for audiences in anticipation of a late 2022 debut, would rank among the most expensive cinematic cast-offs ever.

Those tests were said to be so poorly received by moviegoers that the studio decided to cut its losses and run, for the sake of the brand’s future. It’s a DC disaster.

“They think an unspeakable batgirl is going to be irredeemable,” the source said.

The Post has reached out to Warner Bros. for comment.

It’s been a months-long walk of shame for the movie. Batgirl, directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys for Life), received not a single mention at DC’s Comic-Con panel in San Diego in July — an unusual move that raised industry eyebrows. The much-publicized event, after all, is designed to boost exposure for forthcoming projects just like this one.

Marvel’s Comic-Con presentation, on the flip side, announced more than a dozen films in the so-called Phases 5 and 6 of the MCU, to be released through fall 2025, with even more surely in the hopper.

batgirlwhich stars Leslie Grace (In the Heights) in the title role, alongside JK Simmons, Michael Keaton and Brendan Fraser, was originally planned for a release on HBO Max. The Puck newsletter reported in April that WB’s then-chair, Toby Emmerich, was considering a theatrical run for the film too.

But Emmerich stepped down in June to form his own production company — not long after Warner Bros. merged with Discovery and David Zaslav became the CEO of the new entity. He replaced Emmerich with MGM’s Michael De Luca (who likely had to deliver the “Bat” news) and Pam Abdy.

While the film’s co-directors have done some scattered interviews about casting, the studio has been mum on plans for batgirl ever since.

Shelving a multimillion-dollar effort would not be unusual for Zaslav, a ruthless cost-cutter. Remember, he’s the same guy who gave the $400 million streaming service CNN+ the ax just days after its splashy launch because it didn’t snare enough subscribers.

The budget-conscious CEO, according to Varietyhas split WB into multiple segments, including a reorganized “DC-based film production” group.

With that in mind, WB is said to be searching for a head honcho to run the flailing DC Extended Universe and whip it into a coherent shape, like Kevin Feige did with the far more successful Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is owned by Disney. The current president of DC film production is Walter Hamada. Warner Bros. Discovery will report their Q2 earnings and announce future plans on Thursday.

DC urgently needs all the help it can get.

Unlike the behavior that is Marvel Studios, whose movies occasionally get bad reviews but reliably print money, DC is a disorganized, confusing, not-very-profitable mess. Aquaman and Wonder Woman 1984 got mixed reviews from critics; birds of prey and Suicide Squad were admired flops.

batman performed OK at the box office for Warner Bros., netting $1.1 billion worldwide with an R rating, and got good notices. However, the only DC Extended Universe film that has managed to beat the $1.45 billion box office gross of Dark Knightwhich came out 14 long years ago (joker with Joaquin Phoenix was not part of the DCEU), was Aquaman.

Meanwhile, Marvel’s pandemic-era Spider-Man: No Way Home has grossed $2.75 billion worldwide and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness you have managed a solid $1.4 billion.

Lately, DC’s nasty star drama has eclipsed the buzz — such as it is — surrounding its movies.

Ezra Miller, who plays the Flash, has caused a string of embarrassing controversies this year. In the spring, the actor was twice arrested in Hawaii — first for disorderly conduct and harassment, then for second-degree assault. Then in June, the Standing Rock Sioux tribal court issued an order of protection against the 29-year-old for allegedly using “violence, intimidation, threat of violence, fear, paranoia, delusions and drugs” to groom an 18-year-old whom the actor has known since she was 12. (Miller has not publicly commented on the latest allegation; a police investigation into the Hawaii incidents are reportedly ongoing.)

Ben Affleck, meanwhile, consistently claims he’s done with playing the Caped Crusader — even going so far as to allow Robert Pattinson to take over the role in this year’s batman — but keeps coming back like a bad ex-boyfriend. It was reported this week by Screen Rant that the actor will appear yet again as Bruce Wayne in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Perplexing.

And Gal Gadot is said to be starring in Wonder Woman 3, but the actress and director Patty Jenkins have said nothing — including a title or release date — beyond that they’re throwing around script ideas. DC, which squanders legendary properties with abandon, appears to have no grand plan whatsoever.

Soon, however, Wonder Woman won’t be the one holding the golden lasso anymore. Instead, power will be wielded by an all-controlling DC film production head who will attempt to turn things around. Before they arrive, killing batgirl is Step 1.

“This is the end of DC as a hobby,” the source said.

This story originally appeared on Page Six and is republished here with permission

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