When Warner Bros Discovery cancelled the completed Batgirl movie, there were grumblings from everyone about how it wasn’t fair. Why was this huge company shelving a movie that people actually wanted to see? Now we just might have an answer: It’s reportedly a terrible movie.
DC Studios co-head Peter Safran said as much during a recent press event held on the Warner Bros. lot, according to reports. Safran said the studio made the right decision, because the film was “not releasable.”
Batgirl will eventually show up in one of DC’s stories, he said, and he praised CEO David Zaslav for having the constitution to cancel the movie and save the studio the embarrassment of releasing it. Here are his full comments, courtesy of Variety.
“Batgirl’s a character that inevitably we will include in our story. On the Batgirl front, it’s not about late in the process of the film getting canceled. I saw the movie, and there are a lot of incredibly talented people in front of and behind the camera on that film. But that film was not releasable, and it happens sometimes. That film was not releasable. I actually think that [president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David] Zaslav and the team made a very bold and courageous decision to cancel it because it would have hurt DC. It would have hurt those people involved.”
If that’s not kissing up to your boss, then we don’t know what is. Bold and courageous? That’s a weird thing to say about a movie that countless people no doubt worked their butts off to make. The movie was directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah and written by Christina Hodson (Bumblebee, Birds of Prey). Saffran said he was already “back in business” with some people from the movie.
“As I said, a lot of talented people were involved, but the film just was not releasable. It would not have been able to compete in the theatrical marketplace; it was built for the small screen. So, again, I think it was not an easy decision, but they made the right decision by shelving it.”
It almost feels like the more people talk about Batgirl, the more people will want to see it. Even if it’s just on TV. Because the studio used the movie as a tax write-off it’s actually illegal to release but that doesn’t mean they can’t go back on the decision.
On the other side of the coin is the fact that Warner Bros. Discovery would have to pay the $90 million to the IRS if they do release the movie. That would certainly hurt Zaslav’s cost cutting measures. There’s also the fact that it would take even more money to complete the film, according to ScreenRant.
We’ll keep you posted on any Batgirl-related developments.
