Warner Bros Discovery is reportedly holding a series of hidden “funeral screenings” of its unreleased DC movie Batgirl starring Leslie Grace, Michael Keaton and Brendan Fraser.
The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed from multiple sources that a select few who worked on the film, including cast, crew and studio executives, will be attending this week’s screenings at the Warner Bros. location in California. One source called them “funeral screenings” as the footage would most likely be kept forever and never shown to the public.
Earlier this month, Batgirl made headlines when it was revealed that new Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav ordered the $90 million film to be scrapped entirely, despite filming wrapping up. Starring Leslie Grace as titular superhero Barbara Gordon, J.K. Simmons as Barbara’s father, Commissioner Gordon, Fraser as the villain Firefly, and Keaton reprising his role as Batman, the film was in post-production when it was mothballed. but still had temporary music. and visual effects.
The news sparked a worldwide reaction, with many social media users using the #releasebatgirl hashtag to urge Warner Bros to release the film. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and directors including James Gunn, Kevin Smith and Edgar Wright have expressed their support for the cast and crew that worked on the film.
The decision to cancel the film was motivated by wider cuts at Warner Bros Discovery following the recent merger of the two companies and a move to save US$3 billion. If the film is not shown, Warner Bros Discovery may accept the tax write-off as a loss-making project.
Batgirl was shown to the public only once, at one test screening.
The Hollywood Reporter said there was a chance that Warner Bros would take “the drastic step of effectively destroying their Batgirl footage to demonstrate to the IRS that there would never be any revenue from the project and thus they should be entitled to a full write-off immediately.” “.
In an interview with French outlet Skript on Tuesday, Batgirl directors Adil El Arbi and Bilal Fallah said they no longer had a copy of the film, recalling the moment they discovered they could no longer access the servers that held the footage.
“We were like ‘damn it!'” El Arbi said. “All scenes with Batman! Shit!”
El Arbi said it’s unlikely they’ll get studio backing to release it in the future, or that there could be an equivalent of the “Snyder Cut” – a four-hour director’s cut of Zack Snyder’s DC Justice League movie that added an extra $70 million to the film with a $300 million budget.
“It cannot be released in its current state,” El Arbi said. “There are no visual effects here… we still had a few scenes to film. So if one day they want us to release a Batgirl movie, they’ll have to give us the funds to do so. To finish it properly with our vision.”