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Kevin Smith slams Warner Bros axing DC film Batgirl but still releasing The Flash

Kevin Smith slams Warner Bros axing DC film Batgirl but still releasing The Flash

Director Kevin Smith has slammed Warner Bros for its decision to ax the upcoming comic book film Batgirl.

The cult filmmaker criticized the cancellation during the latest episode of his YouTube series, Hollywood Babble-On.

“It’s an incredibly bad look to cancel the Latina batgirl movie,” the 52-year-old said.

“I don’t give a sh*t if the movie was absolute f***ing dogs**t. I guarantee you that it wasn’t.

“The two directors [Bilall Fallah and Adil El Arbi] who directed that movie did a couple of episodes of mrs marveland it was a wonderful f***ing show.

“They had more money to do batgirl than they had to do an episode of mrs marvel and stuff.”

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

Some reports also stated that since the film was a made-for-TV movie it looked “too cheap” upon release in theaters.

But the Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back star said he was skeptical of the rumour.

They said batgirl it looked too cheap because it was a $90 million movie,” he said.

“How do you make a cheap-looking $90 million movie?

“If it looked slightly better than an episode of Arrow then why couldn’t we see that?”

Smith went on to call the decision “baffling”, while he and co-host Ralph Garman questioned why the studio was still going ahead with Flashwhich stars controversial actor Ezra Miller.

the Fantastic Beasts star has been embroiled in multiple scandals in the past few months.

The 29-year-old, who uses they/them pronouns, was most recently charged with felony burglary in Vermont, US, over an incident at a residence on May 1 where bottles of alcohol were allegedly stolen while the homeowners weren’t home. The actor is due for arraignment on September 26.

In June, Miller was also accused by the parents of an 18-year-old of allegedly grooming their child with “cult-like” and “psychologically manipulative” behaviors, though the teen denied the accusations against the actor.

On top of that, Miller was arrested multiple times in Hawaii – first for disorderly conduct and harassment and then for second-degree assault – in March and April, respectively.

Miller also landed in hot water in 2020 after a video surfaced that appeared to show them choking a fan at a bar in Reykjavik, Iceland.

“That’s the baffling thing,” Smith said.

“I don’t give a sh*t how bad the batgirl movie is, nobody in that movie is complicated or has anything in their real life you have to market around.

“In Flash movie, we all know there’s a big problem! Flash is the Reverse-Flash in real life.”

Last week, a Hollywood insider disclosed that the batgirl cast were blindsided by Warner Bros’ decision to cancel the movie.

“They had no idea the movie was being shelved,” a film industry source told the new york post.

“That’s a giant problem.”

The insider added that the actors had told their teams that the situation had been “humiliating” and “disappointing” as they found out about the news in the media alongside fans.

– with the New York Post

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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 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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