'Batgirl' director said he 'wanted to break stuff, cry, even laugh' when he learned that the movie was shelved while at a wedding
- Warner Bros. Discovery recently canceled the release of the "Batgirl" movie.
- Co-director Bilall Fallah said that he "wanted to break stuff, cry, even laugh" when he heard.
When Warner Bros. Discovery shelved its "Batgirl" movie, directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah were in Morocco for the former's wedding.
When Fallah heard the news while at the wedding, he "didn't know how to react," he said in an interview for the YouTube channel Skript.
"First, when I heard the news, I was shocked, I didn't know how to react," he said. "I wanted to break stuff, cry, even laugh. I was like, 'this is not happening.'"
Warner Bros. Discovery, the new company formed from the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery this year, is implementing cost-cutting measures throughout the company. One casualty was "Batgirl," which was developed as a straight-to-HBO Max movie.
CEO David Zaslav said during the company's recent earnings call that he couldn't make the "strategic case" for streaming-first movies, a drastic shift in strategy from WarnerMedia during the pandemic.
Variety and The Hollywood Reporter reported that rather than spending more money on the already $90 million production to make it worthy for a theatrical release, Warner Bros. Discovery opted to instead scrap the movie and take a tax writedown.
"They told us it was a strategic change, a shifting in the management," El Arbi said during the interview. "They can save up some bucks."
The movie was scrapped as Warner Bros. Discovery charts a new 10-year plan for DC movies, similar to Marvel's strategy.
The directors added that the movie was far from finished, and would be an undertaking to complete if it was to ever see the light of day.
"['Batgirl'] cannot be released in its current state," El Arbi said. "There's no VFX, we still had to shoot some scenes. So if [Warner Bros.] wanted us to release the 'Batgirl' movie they would need to give us the means to do it. To finish it properly with our vision."