‘Coyote vs. Acme’ might actually see the light of day after all

The movie was shelved by Warner Bros. Discovery in 2023

By Joe Allen Published March 19, 2025

Coyote and Will Forte in Coyote vs. Acme — Warner Bros.

More than a year after Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it was not going to release Coyote vs. Acme, it seems like the movie might actually see the light of day. The movie, which stars John Cena, Will Forte, and Lana Condor, is a live-action, animated hybrid featuring characters from the Looney Tunes.

Ketchup Entertainment is now set to acquire the distribution rights to the film, reportedly for a price tag of $50 million. The movie was originally shelved by Warner Bros. Discovery in 2023 so that they could collect on a $30 million tax write-off, a move that outraged many in the creative community (the movie is, reportedly, largely completed).

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Ketchup Entertainment also acquired the rights to The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, which the studio decided to shop after completing it.

The movie is reportedly about the famed coyote from the Roadrunner cartoons as he attempts to bring a lawsuit against Acme, the company that provides him with all the faulty equipment he uses to try to catch the Roadrunner.

The deal is not yet finalized, but might mean that we actually get to see the release of a movie that became something of a parable about the dangers of working with studios in the modern era. When studios are willing to shelve a completed movie because they think they’ll make more money off of it as a tax write-off, it means that they are no longer prioritizing actual creativity. Thankfully, it seems like the folks at Ketchup Entertainment might see the potential to make some money with the movie.

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Joe Allen is a freelance culture writer based in upstate New York. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The…

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