Coyote vs. Warner Bros. Discovery

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 December 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The movie Coyote vs. Acme was set to release this summer featuring characters from the iconic Looney Tunes cartoons. The studio behind the film, Warner Bros. Pictures, had some other ideas. Instead of releasing the completed film, the studio canceled Coyote vs. Acme, with no intention of ever releasing it.

Today on the show, we explain the Hollywood economics behind why Warner Bros. Discovery might not want to release movies that its own studio spent years putting together.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR. Hey Waylan!
0:12.6	Sam Yellowhorse Kessler, Planet Money Producer.
0:15.4	Hello!
0:16.4	So I want to play a little game.
0:17.9	Do you recognize this sound?
0:19.9	Oh yes, that's the speedy roadrunner from the classic Warner Brothers cartoons
0:27.4	the smiling bird that's always being chased by Wyle E coyote this sort of deranged mangy looking dog.
0:34.8	Yeah, Coyote keeps trying different contraptions to try and catch Roadrunner,
0:39.5	but the schemes always backfire in some spectacular and hilarious fashion.
0:44.3	And yet, Coyote never gives up on his sissophian task of catching the Roadrunner.
0:53.6	He is the most optimistic character I've ever known.
0:56.8	This is the voice of Hollywood producer Chris DiFaria.
1:00.0	He wakes up every single morning, sets the table for Roadrunner's stew that night.
1:04.7	And every night he has to put the little fork and knife away and go back to bed and start again the next day.
1:10.0	For the past four years, Chris has been working on a movie called Coyote versus Acme.
1:14.5	He had really high hopes for the film. But then suddenly, the road he was running on turned into a cliff. This is the indicator from Planet Money.
1:27.0	I'm Sam Yellow Horse Kessler.
1:32.0	And I'm Waylon Wong. After I'm Whelan Wong.
1:33.0	After filming and post-production was completed,
1:35.0	Warner Brothers Discovery decided to scrap Coyote versus Acme,
1:39.0	a first for the studio.
1:41.0	Today on the show,
	...

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