Way to flush $90 million down the drain. In a completely dumbfounding move, Warner Bros. Discovery will not release Batgirl theatrically or on HBO Max. The New York Post had the original story with The Wrap confirming it first. David Zaslav first canceled The Wonder Twins movie as a first act in his time in power at the company, and now Batgirl is gone. The film was designed to be an HBO Max release next year. The budget went to around $90 million because of pandemic-related delays and costs. It was set to star Leslie Grace as Batgirl and see Michael Keaton return to the role of Bruce Wayne. Brendan Fraser was also set to star as the villain in the film.
It’s a move that makes little to no sense considering that the film was finished filming. The Wrap had a quote about the reasoning:
The new owners and management are committed to making DC titles big theatrical event films, and “Batgirl” isn’t that. Insiders add that studio brass loves the film’s directors and star, and are actively planning to work with them soon.
The moves that DC and WB have made over the past couple of months are dumbfounding. They had an hour-long presentation at San Diego Comic-Con to show off their film slate and showed off two movies that we already knew were coming. It’s an exercise in stupidity and shows disrespect to filmmakers and the people that work on their movies. It begs the question: how do you get Michael Keaton back to play Batman and mess it up?
According to those in the know, the test screenings for the film were mixed to positive from audiences. David Zaslav is a relatively inexperienced film executive, and that inexperience might be showing.
We’ll keep you updated as this story develops.
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Source: New York Post
