Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly holding a series of thoughtful “funeral screenings” for their never-released DC film Batgirl, starring Leslie Grace, Michael Keaton and Brendan Fraser.
The Hollywood Reporter confirmed to multiple sources that a select few who worked on the film, including the cast, crew and studio executives, will attend the screening this week at the Warner Bros. A source described them as a “funeral screening”, as it is likely that the footage will be archived forever and never shown to the public.
Earlier this month, Batgirl hit the headlines when it was revealed that David Zaslav, the new Warner Bros. Starring Leslie Grace as the superhero Barbara Gordon, JK Simmons as Barbara’s father, Commissioner Gordon, Fraser as the villainous Firefly and Keaton returning to his role as Batman, the film was canned. Postproduction was well done, but still had a tentative score and visual effects.
The news sparked a worldwide reaction, with many on social media using the hashtag #releasebatgirl to ask Warner Bros. to release the film. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and directors including James Gunn, Kevin Smith and Edgar Wright lent their support to the cast and crew working on the film.
The decision to cancel the film was prompted by wide cuts at Warner Bros. Discovery following the recent merger of the two companies, and is seeking to save US$3 billion. If the film is not shown, Warner Bros. Discovery may take a tax write-down as a money-losing project.
Batgirl is shown to members of the public only once in a single trial screening.
The Hollywood Reporter reported that there was a chance that Warner Bros. would “take the drastic step of actually destroying their Batgirl footage as a way to demonstrate to the IRS that there would never be any revenue from the project, and thus it deserves full coverage.” Must write immediately.”
On Tuesday, in an interview with French outlet Scrypt, Batgirl directors Adil El Arbi and Bilal Fallah said they no longer had a copy of the film, recalling the moment they found they no longer had access to the server holding the footage. Can’t reach
“We were like ‘fucking shit’!” El Arabi said. “All the scenes with Batman! Mal!”
El Arby stated that it is unlikely that he will have the studio’s backing to release it in the future or there may be an equivalent to “The Snyder Cut” – a four-hour director’s cut of Zack Snyder’s DC film Justice League, Which added an additional $70m for a $300m budget film.
“It cannot be released in its current state,” El Arbi said. “There is no VFX… we still had some scenes to shoot. So if one day they want us to release a Batgirl movie, they have to give us the means to do it. From our point of view, it’s okay.” to end with.”
(This story has not been edited by seemayo staff and is published from a rss feed)