According to a major Hollywood insider who talked to The New York Post, Warner Bros. would “completely shelve” the DC Comics film “Batgirl.”
As a result, neither cinemas nor HBO Max will be able to display it. It will not be seen by fans.
The film would go down in history as one of the most expensive flops ever filmed, with an estimated budget of more than $100 million. Batgirl was meant to have an official release in late 2022.
The test screenings were said to have been so negatively received by moviegoers that the studio chose to cut its losses and escape in order to save the brand. It’s a complete DC shitstorm.
“They think an unspeakable ‘Batgirl’ is going to be irredeemable,” The Post insider alleged.
“Batgirl,” directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (“Bad Boys for Life”), had no mention at DC’s Comic-Con panel in San Diego in July, an unusual decision that piqued industry interest. After all, the highly publicized event is intended to generate awareness for future endeavors similar to this one.
“Batgirl,” starring Leslie Grace, J.K. Simmons, Michael Keaton, and Brendan Fraser, was originally set to premiere on HBO Max. According to Puck Newsletter , WB’s then-chairman, Toby Emmerich, was exploring a theatrical distribution for the picture in April of that same year.
In June, after Warner Bros. and Discovery concluded their merger and David Zaslav took over as CEO, Emmerich stepped aside to launch his own production company. He replaced Emmerich with Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy from MGM.
Zaslav is infamous for his predilection for cutting corners, so a multimillion-dollar project being canceled is nothing new to him. CNN+, which had a $300 million budget, was canceled by the same man just days after its splashy launch due to a lack of subscriber interest.
WB is reported to be looking for a top executive to oversee the floundering DC Extended Universe and whip it into shape, much like Kevin Feige did with the far more successful Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is owned by Disney. Walter Hamada is the current president of DC Film Production. DC is in severe need of any help it can get.
Unlike Marvel Studios, whose films occasionally receive poor reviews but consistently generate revenue, DC is a muddled, convoluted, and unprofitable hodgepodge. “Aquaman” and “Wonder Woman 1984” received mixed reviews, while “Birds of Prey” and “The Suicide Squad” were panned.
It takes balls of steel on the part of David Zaslav to discard a $100 million movie to protect a franchise. To me, it’s a clear sign that the “fanfiction-amateur-era” is over, and the profit-seeking professionals are back in the driver’s seat.
Let us be optimistic but not delusional, the DCEU has a long way to go before it become as successful as the MCU, and there is plenty of hurdle in its way. I can’t wait to see how David Zaslav is going to deal with Ezra Miller’s “The Flash”, and Amber Heard in Aquaman. These movies could bomb so hard that they might bring down the entire DCEU.
When the drama surrounding these two movies seems more interesting than the movies themselves, you know you have a problem.