In “Looney Tunes” canon, there isn’t a character as frequently pancaked, dynamited or run over by a train that came out of a tunnel painted on the side of a canyon as Wile E. Coyote, who first appeared in the 1949 short “Fast and Furry-ous” alongside his foil the Roadrunner. And yet, his ineffable spirit remains.
The coyote is the persistent embodiment of picking yourself up, dusting yourself off (or picking up your body parts that have been strew across a sandy gorge) and trying again – to catch that rascally Roadrunner, for sure, but also to follow your dreams, chase the rainbow, whatever.
And it’s that spirit of resilience that the team behind “Coyote vs. Acme” found themselves drawing upon in some very trying times, with the movie – an adaptation of a 1990 New Yorker short story that sees Wile E. Coyote hire an ambulance-chasing lawyer for wronged cartoon characters (Will Forte) to fight the Acme corporation over its defective products – effectively killed by parent company Warner Bros. Discovery before getting an unlikely reprieve from distributor Ketchup Entertainment.
“Coyote vs. Acme” is in theaters Friday. Just a few years ago, this was inconceivable. Impossible even. But the “Coyote vs. Acme” team, like Wile E. Coyote himself, didn’t give up.
“On a big grand level, ‘Coyote vs. Acme’s’ journey from mainstream film to on the dust heap to revived and now with a premiere is the story of all the new forces that exist in Hollywood right now, everything from the influence of a Wall Street that owns Hollywood now, the mergers and acquisitions that have taken over, the powerful role of social media that has to be attended to and the recognition of quality that still remains,” the film’s producer Chris DeFaria, a veteran of complex, effects-laden projects like “Ready Player One,” “Gravity” and “Mad Max: Fury Road,” told TheWrap. “And all those things mixed into a blender, out pours a project.”
There’s finished and then there’s finished
Development on “Coyote vs. Acme” was as slow and cumbersome as any big Hollywood project. But unlike earlier animation/live-action hybrids, the integration of the two elements is not what caused the slowdown. Scott Rudin originally tried to produce an adaptation of Ian Frazier’s short story in 1998 but couldn’t get permission from Warner Bros. to actually make it. The rights eventually lapsed and in 2015 James Gunn revived the project at Warner Bros., where he had full access to the studio’s extensive suite of characters. (Gunn has a producer and “story by” credit on the final film.)
This was a chance to do something new with the “Looney Tunes” characters, Warner Bros.’ flagship IP since the first short in 1930, utilizing them in ways that 1996’s “Space Jam” (and its 2021 sequel) had not. The project could be faithful and funny.
“It was confusion first. It cycled through a lot of stuff – a lot of confusion – which turned into just rage for a long time, and then just sorrow.” – Will Forte
“Earth to Echo” filmmaker Dave Green joined as director in 2019 and production took place in New Mexico in the spring and early summer of 2022. New Mexico State Film Officer Director Amber Dodson issued a press release in June that stated, “There’s no better place for this film to be made than Albuquerque — it will showcase our beautiful city as an already iconic location and setting in the Looney Tunes cartoons.” The production utilized 180 New Mexico crew members, 49 New Mexico principal actors and roughly 2,120 New Mexicans who served as background talent.
Non-New Mexican talent included Forte, Lana Condor, John Cena and Luis Guzmán along with longtime “Looney Tunes” voice actor Eric Bauza, with visual effects house DNEG providing the effects and animation for “Coyote vs. Acme.”
“It was such a nice group of people,” Forte said of the production. “It was just an awesome experience.”
It wasn’t until after production wrapped that the movie started to fall apart, like a malfunctioning gyrocopter or an improperly calibrated, industrial-strength magnet.
“It was ordered by one regime at the studio and inherited by another. That’s always rocky,” said DeFaria.
But rocky doesn’t quite cut it.
In November 2023 Warner Bros., now Warner Bros. Discovery under CEO David Zaslav, said that the film was fully completed but that the studio would not actually release it. Instead, it would shelve the movie indefinitely and pick up a $30 million tax write-off. This wasn’t the first time it had done something like this; a nearly finished “Batgirl” movie, with Michael Keaton returning as Batman and Brendan Fraser as the villain, was also shelved and an animated “Scooby-Doo” movie, “Scoob! Holiday Haunt,” was canceled after almost being finished.
“When we got the news I immediately thought about all of the cast and crew who had put so much heart and soul and time into the movie and into also the idea of honoring these characters who are deep legacy characters that have been kept alive for generations, by filmmakers, but also by the audience, just paying attention to them and caring about them,” said Green. “I really felt that from our crew and our animators and cast, everyone who showed up was 150% in. Our crew really had passion from Day 1. It made the entire environment positive. No one cut corners. Everyone was a coyote.”
Speculation was rampant about the reason behind the cancellation, and the cast and crew were mostly courteous in the press. Green, on X, wrote, “We were all determined to honor the legacies of these historic characters and actually get them right. Along the ride, we were embraced by test audiences who rewarded us with fantastic scores. I am beyond proud of the final product and beyond devastated by WB’s decision.”
“You always cross your fingers and hope that they’re not going to walk away from your project, which they have good reason to do often because they come in with a mandate and now they have to own something from the past,” explained DeFaria. “But it’s very unusual that that kind of process would govern a film that’s finished. I’ve never seen that before in my life. That’s the real change. This was a new level of adjustment for everybody involved.”
Fans revolted on social media, demanding to see the movie. And after the public outcry, Warner Bros. had pledged to shop the movie elsewhere.
And while everyone involved in the movie remained quietly optimistic, by early 2024, TheWrap exclusively reported that Warner Bros. executives had started to call “Coyote vs. Acme” producer DeFaria, anxious to get the movie off the books. Several offers from various studios and streamers (including Netflix and Amazon) had come in but Warner Bros. had turned down the offers and wouldn’t allow them to counter. Paramount had proposed an ambitious theatrical component with their offer. But no.
The team felt trapped; a dangling anvil hanging over their head and the rope quickly beginning to fray.
Worst of all, the executives who made the decision to catapult “Coyote vs. Acme” into an uncertain future, including embattled CEO Zaslav, hadn’t even watched the movie.
“It was confusion first. It cycled through a lot of stuff — a lot of confusion — which turned into just rage for a long time, and then just sorrow,” said Forte.
Those emotions intensified when he saw the actual movie – Forte attended one of the so-called “funeral screenings” on the Warner Bros. lot, for those who worked on the movie and select invited guests.
“All of us after watching that movie were looking around at each other and saying, ‘Is this the version that they saw that made them want to get rid of it?’ It was baffling,” said Forte. “I didn’t understand it. I still don’t.”
“I don’t seek to indict those involved in that decision. They had their reasons. I’m not privy to those,” said DeFaria. “The most important thing was that we all realized that these people, hundreds of people, artists, who we had asked to stay late at night and work weekends and do their best work for us, don’t go to their kids’ baseball games, that they weren’t going to get to see the movie on screen. Maybe ever. That really concerned us.”
“I wouldn’t say I ever gave up hope,” said Green. “I kept hope alive, and I had a lot of friends supporting that hope. I always felt proud of the movie and I always felt rewarded by the fact that we had made something that we knew was cool and good.”
But whether anyone would actually get to see the movie remained in question.
Back in action
The months rolled on, like a tumbleweed across an immaculately painted backdrop.
“My mission was to find a way to spread the word, find a way to prove that point and I think in the back of my mind, hope that the industry would address it somehow,” said DeFaria.
Forte, for his part, was asked about the project during every interview. And he was very honest about his take on the situation.
“Maybe more people know about this movie, I’m trying to turn that into a positive. But I was very angry for a while. I don’t like having those emotions in me,” said Forte. “But if I’m being honest, it was a period of great anger. I was crushed for the entire group that made this movie, but especially Dave Green, the director. He spent so much time on this, put so much of his heart into it, and he did not deserve what was done to this movie.”
More than a year after “Coyote vs. Acme” had been written off by Warner Bros. Discovery, an unlikely savior emerged in the form of Ketchup Entertainment, a small boutique production and distribution company in Los Angeles. It had unique experience that made it especially suited for “Coyote vs. Acme” – in 2025 it had distributed “The Day the Earth Blew Up,” a feature-length animated “Looney Tunes” feature that Warner Bros. had similarly abandoned the year before. (It played at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival without a distributor.)
In the spring of 2025, Ketchup acquired North American rights to “Coyote vs. Acme” for a reported $50 million.
“When I talked to Gareth West, who runs Ketchup, he said, ‘Well, we knew about the movie. We made some inquiries very early on when Warner Bros. said that someone else can get it.’ At the time, they were in business with Warner Bros. on ‘The Day the Earth Blew Up.’ They made some inquiries, but the numbers weren’t there,” said DeFaria. “And then about a year ago, I got word that Ketchup had been sniffing around, that there might be some real interest again on Warner Bros.’ behalf. The people that heard that, understanding the PR around this, we certainly didn’t sit on that information. We let everybody know as fast as we could there might be something in the air, and it felt like everybody jumped up and started getting excited about it. But the actual details of where it happened, I wasn’t privy to.”
Ketchup did not return TheWrap’s request for comment.
“However cynical you might view both this industry and the world around us, rarely does injustice go unaddressed. And rarely does something very good remain hidden,” said DeFaria. “In some respects you trust the market, you trust the world around you that this is going to get out. But I knew the most important part for me was that it was seen clearly and honestly for what it was because I think the other movies that had suffered this fate, they were painted with the brush of not being good movies.”
Forte did not have the same optimism.
“I would talk to Dave every once in a while, during those periods when it just seemed like it was dead forever and I’d say, ‘What do you think? Is there ever any chance that something would happen?’ He’s like, ‘I don’t know. You never know.’ But it certainly didn’t seem like it had any chance,” Forte said.
The actor had been given “a little bit of a heads up that maybe something was happening” but didn’t want to have any real expectations “because it was so painful.” “I just tried to throw those emotions in a little closet and shut the door, and then when it actually happened, I was still like, OK, let’s see – is it going to fall apart or something?” he said.
Green got a phone call 24 hours before the news of Ketchup’s acquisition broke.
“I don’t think I believed it. I was totally in shock. I remain totally in shock. This is very surreal,” said Green. “This is all a dream that I never imagined possible and I struggle to find words to articulate the shift in reality.”
Since the announcement of its acquisition, there have been a pair of “Coyote vs. Acme” activations at San Diego Comic-Con – a panel last year, hosted by Paul Scheer (who was at one of the funeral screenings on the lot) and a screening this year, where DeFaria watched the movie for the first time in two years.
“I went to that theater going, I wonder if I’m just completely fooling myself and this is a terrible movie and I’m going to find out. And I can tell you, it played brilliantly. It was just one of the best nights of my life. Dave and I were sitting next to each other, both having the same suspicion that we were delusional,” said DeFaria. “And then the audience started laughing at jokes that we didn’t even think were funny. They were really on board with the movie. Now I admit it was a great audience and they wanted to like the movie, but I liked the movie. I really liked the movie.”
And the buzz for “Coyote” continued to grow. At the world premiere at the Directors Village theater in Westwood, Wile E. Coyote led the UCLA marching band into the theater. (Nothing exploded afterwards.)
“I still can’t believe it. I can’t believe we’re at this moment,” said Green.
Forte, meanwhile, is just psyched that the movie is finally coming out. At every opportunity he exudes gratitude for the experience of making the film and profound relief that audiences are finally going to see it.
“I just can’t wait for people to see it. I’m so proud of this movie. I’m so excited about it,” he said.
The unlikeliest outcome for “Coyote vs. Acme” – and also its happiest – is finally coming to pass.
At the end of the credits for “Coyote vs. Acme” is something that wasn’t there on the original version of the movie. It’s a card that is so inspirational, so true to both the movie’s story (about an underdog taking on a giant) and the movie’s prolonged road to the big screen, that it could make even the most hardened filmgoer choke up.
“Dedicated to everyone who posted, shared, held up signs and spoke out when it counted. This film made it to the big screen because of you,” it reads.
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