AILSA CHANG, HOST:
"Coyote Vs. Acme" is finally set for its full theatrical release tomorrow. Three years ago, Warner Bros. Discovery shelved the release of this live-action Looney Tunes film, despite it being 100% complete. Our colleagues from The Indicator, Sam Yellowhorse Kesler and Wailin Wong, spoke to the film's producer about the movie's Sisyphean path to the big screen.
SAM YELLOWHORSE KESLER, BYLINE: Hollywood producer Chris deFaria first got into show business as a kid.
CHRIS DEFARIA: I was the voice of Peppermint Patty in the "Peanuts" TV shows.
WAILIN WONG, BYLINE: Years later, Chris went on to produce big-budget movies like "Gravity" and "Mad Max: Fury Road," but he's always had a soft spot for animation.
DEFARIA: I often say that, look, you know, live-action movies are seeking often an objective truth. Animation really is pursuing an emotional truth.
KESLER: Chris saw movies like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," which blended live action and animation, as an inspiration. He went on to become one of the founders of Warner Bros. current animation division, and around seven years ago, when Warner Bros. first floated the idea of a Wile E. Coyote movie, Chris was really excited to get on board.
WONG: The movie was based off of a New Yorker humor piece where Coyote sues the ACME company. In the movie, Coyote's lawyer is a personal injury attorney who says ACME's faulty products have harmed his client.
KESLER: And as the producer of "Coyote Vs. Acme," Chris' job was to line up all the talent, hire a writer for the script, an artist to make the storyboards, and part of that plan is thinking through the budget and expected box office.
DEFARIA: The economics of the movie business are curious. The studios definitely greenlight a movie and particularly approve the budget of the movie based on their best projections about what it will make. Also, it's a really important component of this process, and that's the gut and the willingness to take risk.
WONG: In 2021, things were not feeling quite so magical at Warner. It had announced a merger with Discovery to become Warner Bros. Discovery, and David Zaslav, the CEO of the new media conglomerate, was inheriting a studio laden with debt.
KESLER: He also inherited the films in progress at Warner Bros. Now, typically, new studio heads will try and make the best of the movies that are already in the works when they take over.
WONG: Chris says he was told there was a financial reason that "Coyote Vs. Acme" was axed back in 2023, but he doesn't know how much money was involved in the decision. Like he said before, the economics of moviemaking are curious. It's part spreadsheets, part guts.
DEFARIA: In my history of working in Hollywood, I'd never seen a movie that was shelved this way.
KESLER: Flash forward to 2025, there were rumors that "Coyote Vs. Acme" might get picked up by this little upstart called Ketchup Entertainment. This is their model. They swoop in after a movie is done and arrange for its wide release.
WONG: In March of 2025, Ketchup did end up purchasing the film to the tune of $50 million and agreed to release it to theaters. Chris found out while getting coffee in his car.
DEFARIA: And I just kept thinking, guys, is that - is this even possible? Oh, my God, I can't believe the journey this has been on is coming to an end. And it might work out.
KESLER: The best explanation Chris can come up with for what happened to the film is that it might have been too odd of a movie to know how to market. But he says that "Coyote Vs. Acme" delivers on the emotions that he and his team wanted.
DEFARIA: They were hope, surprise and emotion, and the movie delivered all these three things in a really great way. And so did the journey we all went on.
KESLER: Hope, surprise, emotion and maybe just a little bit of good old-fashioned TNT.
WONG: That's all, folks. Wailin Wong.
KESLER: Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, NPR News.
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