Batgirl

Warner Bros. has reportedly decided not to release the Leslie Grace film co-starring Michael Keaton.

Whatever happens here, no one can ever say that the behind the scenes drama at Warner Bros. and DC Films is boring. You also can’t help but wonder about The Flash, another upcoming Warner Bros. movie that certainly cost much more than $100 million and has a much, much bigger problem than it just not being a good movie: star Ezra Miller has become a mainstay in the police blotter. According to the Wrap, Warner Bros. has nothing against any of those people and hopes to work with them soon—it’s just that the film was made under a different regime, and it doesn’t mesh with the current boss’ plans. If the studio truly doesn’t think the movie it has is good enough for audiences, and that releasing it could damage the DC brand as a whole, losing $100 million now is better than the countless billions it could lose in the future. Variety then offers another angle that “Studio insiders insist the decision was not driven by the quality of the film or the commitment of the filmmakers, but by the desire for the studio’s slate of DC features to be at a blockbuster scale,” The Wrap adds that the film was made as a streaming movie, not a big theatrical release, and Warner Bros.’ new management wants DC titles to be as big as possible.

The $70 million film was in middle of post-production when decision was made.

As for the exact reason behind the shelving, sources say the film did not fall in line with the new strategy being implemented by DC Films as well as HBO Max. The studio is looking to make theatrical tentpoles with budgets at $90 million-plus, and from early footage seen this did not fall into place with that model. The New York Post first reported the Batgirl news. This falls in line with the mandate put down by the new WB regime to cut back on the feature films premiering on the streamer and deciding which films will be released theatrically and which will be shelved, and sources close to the project say word came down this week that Batgirl did not make the cut.

Michael Keaton reprised his role as Batman in the film, whose budget ballooned amid expensive reshoots.

Production was delayed because of Covid-19 and expensive reshoots were carried out, causing the film’s budget to skyrocket, according to The Wrap. Leslie Grace is best known for her role as Nina in In The Heights. Batgirl also starred Michael Keaton, who was set to reprise his role as Batman in the film, as well as J.K. Simmons and Brendan Frasier. It was directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, who are known for Mrs. Marvel. It’s unusual for studios to completely scrap projects. Starring Leslie Grace in the iconic comic book role, the movie had performed poorly in test screenings, according to the New York Post, which first broke the news of the cancellation.

"Batgirl" was to star "In the Heights" breakout Leslie Grace, J.K. Simmons, Michael Keaton, and Brendan Fraser.

On March 30, Warner Bros. and DC executives reportedly held an emergency meeting to discuss Miller’s future with the studio ahead of “The Flash” premiere in June 2023. Upcoming DC installment “The Flash” reportedly was poised to set up the next phase of the DCU, with Michael Keaton and now Ben Affleck reprising their respective roles as different iterations of Batman in a multiverse-esque spanning film. The film was originally set for an HBO Max release with reports that then Warner Bros. chair Toby Emmerich was considering a theatrical release as well. The Warner Bros. Discovery film will be shelved indefinitely, a Warner Bros. representative confirmed to IndieWire. “Batgirl” was to star Leslie Grace (“In the Heights”) in the title role, with J.K. Simmons, Michael Keaton, and Brendan Fraser rounding out the cast. Warner Bros. Discovery is now prioritizing theaters for their DC IP, and “Batgirl” has not been deemed suitable for theatrical or HBO Max. The film proved to be a costly outing for the studio, with a reported budget of $90 million due to COVID protocols and shutdowns piling onto the already-$80-million movie. Warner Bros.’ “The Flash” and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” may be plagued with off-screen drama, but there is one DC movie suffering a more conclusive fate: the upcoming “ Batgirl.”

'Batgirl' was nearly finished and building awareness among fans. Why would Warner Bros. Discovery throw it all away? Taxes.

Spending the money to expand the scope of “Batgirl” for theaters — plus the $30 million to $50 million needed to market it domestically and the tens of millions more needed for a global rollout — could have nearly doubled spending on the film, and insiders say that was a non-starter at a company newly focused on belt-tightening and the bottom line. The death of “Batgirl” on Tuesday sent immediate shockwaves through Hollywood. The film — with a $75 million budget that grew to $90 million due to COVID-related overages — had finished shooting months ago and was in test screenings as directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (“Bad Boys for Life,” “Ms. Marvel”) worked through the post-production process. Releasing the movie on HBO Max would seem to be the most obvious solution. “Batgirl” found itself on the bad end of that decision, apparently neither big enough to feel worthy of a major theatrical release nor small enough to make economic sense in an increasingly cutthroat streaming landscape. Instead, the company has shelved “Batgirl” — along with the “Scoob!” sequel — and several sources say it will almost certainly take a tax write-down on both films, seen internally as the most financially sound way to recoup the costs (at least, on an accountant’s ledger). It could justify that by chalking it up to a post-merger change of strategy. As part of that effort, Zaslav has made no secret of reversing Kilar’s strategy and committing to releasing first-run feature films in theaters before putting them on HBO Max.

Following a regime change in Warner Bros, plans to release the forthcoming DC movie Batgirl have been axed, causing the completed film — which starred In ...

First announced in 2017, the film initially had Avengers director Joss Whedon attached to direct before exiting in 2018. This, the reports indicate, is where the film was doomed, testing poorly during a time where new Warner Bros. leadership is looking to rebuild DC’s theatrical brand. However, new Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav has major plans to overhaul the entire company’s film output, and regime changes often mean many once-sure bets get discarded in sometimes surprising ways.

"Batgirl," the feature film adaptation of the DC Comics character, has been killed at Warner Bros. and won't be released on any platform.

And it’s not like “Batgirl” was a small movie, either. Studio insiders insist the decision to axe “Batgirl” was not driven by the quality of the film or the commitment of the filmmakers, but by the desire for the studio’s slate of DC features to be at a blockbuster scale. “She’s a biker chick, so you’re going to see her do a bunch of badassery… Footage for the animated adaptation of the “Scooby-Doo” series was showcased in a sizzle reel for HBO Max back in December 2021. Also on the chopping block, “Scoob!: Holiday Haunt,” a followup to the 2020 film “Scoob!,” has been shelved by the studio. It will not premiere on any platform at the studio — neither theatrically nor on HBO Max.

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. halted work on its new “Batgirl” superhero movie despite having already filmed the picture, according to multiple reports from ...

The movie, based on DC Comics characters, was in the final stages of editing. Warner Bros. didn’t respond to requests for comment. It won’t be released in theaters or on the company’s HBO Max streaming service, Variety and Deadline reported Tuesday. Variety said the film cost $90 million to make.

The Dish: What's Behind The 'Batgirl' & 'Scoob!' Discard? David Zaslav's Abject Rejection Of Jason Kilar's HBO Max Strategy.

Warner Bros Discovery just released this statement: “The decision to not release Batgirl reflects our leadership’s strategic shift as it relates to the DC universe and HBO Max. Leslie Grace is an incredibly talented actor and this decision is not a reflection of her performance. But as all Warner Bros Discovery braces for Thursday’s quarterly earnings report and the layoffs that are sure to come, no one with a project made specifically for HBO Max or execs there can feel confident at this moment. Rather than spend vast sums pumping up the budgets of each film to compete in theatrical marketplace, and then spend $80 million in global P&A, the studio felt that scrapping both of the movies was a better choice, when coupled with the purchase accounting maneuver. This opportunity expires in mid-August, said sources, and it allows Warner Bros Discovery to not have to carry the losses on its books at a time when the studio is trying to pare down $3 billion in debt across its divisions. The makers of the live action Batgirl and the animated Scoob! learned today that those films were being stopped in their tracks. There are several threads here, but the move amounts to an emphatic rejection of past WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar’s strategy to make original $70 million live action and animated films directly for streaming site HBO Max.

The new DC Comics film “Batgirl,” which still has no release date, will be completely “shelved” by Warner Bros., a top Hollywood source told The Post.

It was reported this week by Screen Rant that the actor will appear yet again as Bruce Wayne in “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.” Perplexing. Then in June, the Standing Rock Sioux tribal court issued an order of protection against the 29-year-old for allegedly using “violence, intimidation, threat of violence, fear, paranoia, delusions and drugs” to groom an 18-year-old whom the actor has known since she was 12. In the spring, the actor was twice arrested in Hawaii — first for disorderly conduct and harassment, then for second-degree assault. Soon, however, Wonder Woman won’t be the one holding the golden lasso anymore. The Batman” performed OK at the box office for Warner Bros., netting $770 million with an R rating, and got good notices. Instead, power will be wielded by an all-controlling DC film production head who will attempt to turn things around. He replaced Emmerich with MGM’s Michael De Luca (who likely had to deliver the “Bat” news) and Pam Abdy. The Puck newsletter reported in April that WB’s then-chair, Toby Emmerich, was considering a theatrical run for the film too. Unlike the behemoth that is Marvel Studios, whose movies occasionally get bad reviews but reliably print money, DC is a disorganized, confusing, not-very-profitable mess. “This is the end of DC as a hobby,” the source said. DC, which squanders legendary properties with abandon, appears to have no grand plan whatsoever. The much-publicized event, after all, is designed to boost exposure for forthcoming projects just like this one.

The DC film about the superhero sidekick fell short of what the company wanted for its key comic book franchise and no longer fit with the studio's film ...

The company has also shelved a “Scoob!” sequel that was planned for HBO Max. Zaslav has promised Wall Street $3 billion in cost savings from the merger, but one of the people close to the company said that scrapping “Batgirl” was not a money-saving measure. Choosing to not release a film of that size means the company will have to eat the costs. The film, which cast “In the Heights” star Leslie Grace in the title role, was conceived with the small screen in mind. But the movie, as scripted and produced, also wasn’t a big enough of a spectacle to merit a full-blown theatrical release. Kilar left the company ahead of its combination with Discovery Inc. in a $43-billion deal that closed this year.

Hours after deciding to pull the plug on Batgirl and the sequel to Scoob!, even though both films were deep in post-production, Warner Brothers has issued a ...

"Leslie Grace is an incredibly talented actor and this decision is not a reflection of her performance. Hours after deciding to pull the plug on Batgirl and the sequel to Scoob!, even though both films were deep in post-production, Warner Brothers has issued a statement saying the decision was strictly business-related. We are incredibly grateful to the filmmakers of Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt and their respective casts and we hope to collaborate with everyone again in the near future."

Warner Bros is not the first studio to bury a film six feet deep. Here are a few more of the worst movies you'll never see.

In 2018 it was announced that Michael Flatley – yes, that Michael Flatley, Lord of the Dance Michael Flatley – had written, directed, financed and starred in a globetrotting spy thriller called Blackbird. Not much was known about the film, other than that most of it seemed to feature Flatley wearing a fedora and gazing into the middle distance. The film was shot in two weeks in 2014, and starred Michael Madsen. A trailer was released, and yet the film itself never made it to television. By all reports a terrible film, Empires of the Deep failed to find distribution in 2014, and a 2016 crowdfunding campaign failed to help get it on to screens. But if this really is it – if Batgirl really is destined to be locked in a vault unseen until the end of time – then at least it finds itself in decent company. A $130m underwater 3D fantasy starring Olga Kurylenko as the queen of the mermaids sounds like the best film of 2011. Until this week, it was hard to look upon the imminent Batgirl movie with anything but a wearied sigh.

"Batgirl" was set to star Leslie Grace and would see Michael Keaton return to the role of Bruce Wayne for the first time since 1992's "Batman Returns."

"Leslie Grace is an incredibly talented actor and this decision is not a reflection of her performance. Why Won't the 'Batgirl' Movie Be Released in Theaters or on Streaming? She was set to star in the film alongside Michael Keaton, who was going to reprise his role as Batman for the first time since 1992's Batman Returns. Why Won't the 'Batgirl' Movie Be Released in Theaters or on Streaming? Although filming has finished and post-production is said to be nearly complete, it has been reported that the film will now not be released either in theaters or on streaming service HBO Max. The film was set to see Leslie Grace make her debut in the DC Universe as the titular superhero, also known as Barbara Gordon.

A truly bizarre situation unfolded in Hollywood yesterday as an avalanche of sites began to report that Warner Bros. would not be releasing its upcoming ...

But that can only happen if you do not monetize the movie at all, no release in theaters, nor on HBO Max, and it cannot be sold do a different studio either. All of this seems like a part of WB’s grand plan to rework the DC universe under new management, given how fractured its become and how troubled many of its projects are, whether that’s actor issues or production quality. A truly bizarre situation unfolded in Hollywood yesterday as an avalanche of sites began to report that Warner Bros. would not be releasing its upcoming Batgirl movie.

Even worse is that we were finally going to see Michael Keaton return as Batman and Brenden Fraser begin his comeback. The Warner Bros. and Discovery merger has ...

The issue was that DC seemed to always try and catch up to Marvel, which is impossible. It is quite confusing that the film is now going to just sit there. This could make the studio seem as though it does not know how to handle a merger of this magnitude, and that it can easily ruin the rest of the DC plans. It is more than confusing that DC went through all this trouble for a completed film, only to cancel it months before it was set to be released. That is enough for the film to be saved and shown somewhere else. There was a ton of hype behind the film, and that could mean it would be highly successful.

Sorry, DC universe fans: the movie, which starred 'In The Heights' actress Leslie Grace in the title role, will not be released theatrically or on HBO Max.

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"Batgirl" was slated for release on HBO Max and would have starred “In the Heights” actress Leslie Grace, plus Michael Keaton as Batman.

And even the star power of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the upcoming “Black Adam” isn’t enough to offset the flood of continual bad news. But the biggest holy cow moment of all from “Batgirl” was going to be the return of Keaton as Batman. There are few bigger deals in comic book culture than his answering a Bat-signal’s call in the 21st century. “Batgirl” making it this far only to never be seen is a new black eye for WB/DC, which continues to stumble over its own good intentions by not having a true Kevin Feige figure to come up with a master plan for its superheroes. Simmons is best known for giving one of the all-time great superhero movie performances in Sam Raimi’s original “Spider-Man” trilogy as Daily Bugle editor in chief J. Jonah Jameson. If Simmons is in your superhero movie, it’s a big deal. If Zachary Levi’s Shazam was standing heroically over Henry Cavill’s Superman with lightning striking behind him in an ode to “ Kingdom Come,” you think people wouldn’t pay money to see that? Now that the Warner Bros./Discovery merger is complete, it seems the expectations for live-action adaptations featuring DC characters has changed drastically.

InIn 1989, Alan Moore wanted to write a comic about what a man does when driven to the point of insanity. In the comic book, The Killing Joke, the Joker ...

But the fan campaign to make that film happen also turned out to mainly be made up of bots and fake accounts. But the rest of us are going to suffer. More likely, Batgirl is just a victim, again, of a corporation out to make a buck. When you’re a giant unwieldy mess of a merger, you have to be ruthless. According to Variety, the film was tucked away, never to be seen, not because it was a bad movie but because the massive entity now known as Warner Bros. Discovery wanted a tax write-off. When Disney acquired Fox in 2019, it promptly killed a live-action Lumberjanes show, threatened to get rid of Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit for fear of offending brand loyalists with a happy-go-lucky Adolf Hitler, and shoved the perfectly lovely The New Mutants in the vault. In the comic book, The Killing Joke, the Joker kidnaps and tortures Jim Gordon to see if he can drive him to the point of insanity that both the Joker and Batman have already reached in their own respective ways. Despite the fact that most of us have seen Batman Forever, Catwoman, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman 1984, Joker, Suicide Squad, Superman Returns, Jonah Hex, and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and know just how tolerant Warner Bros. typically is of dog-shit superhero movies. Maybe this is all an elaborate plan by Warner Bros. Discovery to drum up support for the film and foster a big movement by fans who will demand the company release it. I can only hope Warner Bros. Discovery wasn’t as cruel when it canceled the already completed Batgirl film this week. At the time, much was said about how awful The New Mutants was. In 1989, Alan Moore wanted to write a comic about what a man does when driven to the point of insanity.

NEW YORK (AP) - Warner Bros. has axed the $90 million “Batgirl” film planned for HBO Max, according to a person connected with the film who was not ...

“The Flash,” scheduled for release next June, stars Ezra Miller who has been arrested twice this year in Hawaii, in a disorderly conduct case and on suspicion of assault. Yet marketing a movie like “Batgirl” for that kind of release would require tens of millions more. Under new Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive David Zaslav, Warner Bros. is shifting its strategy on film releases and trimming costs. I am beyond heartbroken.” The decision was highly unusual for such a high-priced and high-profile movie. While “The Batman” earlier this year performed well with $770.8 million in ticket sales, Warners' DC releases have been erratic and plagued by controversy.

The "Batgirl" film that was set to bring the DC Comics character to the big screen will no longer be released by Warner Bros., according to the studio.

"Leslie Grace is an incredibly talented actor and this decision is not a reflection of her performance," the statement added. "We are incredibly grateful to the filmmakers of 'Batgirl' and 'Scoob! Holiday Haunt' and their respective casts and we hope to collaborate with everyone again in the near future." The movie was set to star "In the Heights" star Leslie Grace in the title role.

“The decision to not release Batgirl reflects our leadership's strategic shift as it relates to the DC universe and HBO Max… Leslie Grace is an incredibly ...

He also had a cameo in the upcoming Aquaman sequel, but due to The Flash’s release date change, that also had to be adjusted. The outlet pointed out how several of their sources say that Warner Bros. “will almost certainly take a tax write-down” on the project, but in doing so, the studio would “[not be able to] monetize [the] movie:” Even worse is that with this potentially being used as a tax write-down, the world will never release it. "The makers of the live action Batgirl and the animated Scoob! learned today that those films were being stopped in their tracks. “The decision to not release Batgirl reflects our leadership’s strategic shift as it relates to the DC universe and HBO Max… Leslie Grace is an incredibly talented actor, and this decision is not a reflection of her performance. "Batgirl found itself on the bad end of that decision, apparently neither big enough to feel worthy of a major theatrical release nor small enough to make economic sense in an increasingly cutthroat streaming landscape.

"Batgirl" directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah can't believe their movie won't be released.

Instead, the new regime at Warner Bros. Discovery wants its DC superhero features to be at a blockbuster scale, which “Batgirl” was not because it was originally conceived specifically for streaming on HBO Max. “As directors, it is critical that our work be shown to audiences, and while the film was far from finished, we wish that fans all over the world would have had the opportunity to see and embrace the final film themselves. The statement continues, “Our amazing cast and crew did a tremendous job and worked so hard to bring Batgirl to life. “Batgirl For Life.” “We are saddened and shocked by the news. Warner Bros. announced Aug. 3 that it would not be releasing the $90 million “Batgirl” in theaters or on its HBO Max streamer despite the movie being fully shot and in post-production.