Will Forte Recalls Warner Bros. Shelving COYOTE VS. ACME for Tax Write-Off

Will Forte appeared on SiriusXM's 'Where Everybody Knows Your Name' with host Ted Danson to discuss his upcoming film Coyote vs Acme and detail the full story of how it nearly was scrapped by Warner Bros.

Discussing Warner Bros.' decision to shelve the movie, Forte said: 'They're like, 'No, they're just shelving it for a tax write-off.' And it was devastating.'

Forte recalled the making of the film and the excitement that built during post-production. 'None of us understand it. We made this movie, the script was really fun. We felt like we were doing the script justice and it was like, 'Oh, this is going to be really great.''

'And then throughout the post-production process, as they're putting all the animation in, they're getting more and more excited about the movie. They start to test it. It's testing really well. Studio is getting more and more excited.'

'Well, the director and the producers, the studio we thought was excited about it. We didn't really know. And then once they were ready to show us the movie, we got a call from the producers saying, 'We're so excited. It's been testing really well. Finally, we feel like it's ready to show you guys.''

'And this was a Tuesday night. They said, 'We're going to show you next Tuesday.''

'And the next day, I got a call from my agent and manager saying, 'Okay, I've got a little bad news for you. Warner Brothers is not going to release this theatrically.' And I'm like, 'Oh, okay. Well, that's a bummer.' 'Cuz you just don't get a lot of movies in theaters anymore. Everything's streaming.'

Danson asked, 'So, this is three, four years ago, right?'

Forte replied, 'This would have been about three or four years ago. And so I thought, 'Okay, well, streaming, great.' And they're like, 'No, they're not gonna release it on streaming either.''

'And I was like, 'Huh, what are the other ways they're going to show it then?' And they're like, 'No, they're just shelving it for a tax write-off.' And it was devastating.'

'The next day I heard they were going to still let us see the movie on the next Tuesday. So within that six-day period I was thinking, oh, the producers must just be—I mean, if they're doing this to this movie, it probably kind of sucks and they just are too deep in it to know.'

'So, I just thought, 'Okay, let's go see it. Warner Brothers must have some reason for this.''

'And then we went and saw it on that Tuesday and it's awesome. It's like, what? It was so frustrating and confusing. I didn't understand it. I didn't understand. And I was so proud of the movie and at the same time, my kids were never going to get to see this 'cuz what we were hearing is they're just going to destroy the movie. It won't even exist.'

'So for a while it looked like there might be hope. We were told that they were open to entertaining offers for the movie, and some, what I heard were very legitimate offers, had come in and they just weren't able to make a deal.'

'So, I started questioning whether they really were wanting to make a deal or whether it was just performative to get people off their backs 'cuz they were catching a lot of heat for it 'cuz they had done this to a couple other projects before us.'

'And so I just gave up. Over time, just couldn't keep holding on to that anger and frustration. So I just let it go and moved on, just thinking, okay, it'll never come back.'

'And then out of nowhere, Ketchup Entertainment came in.'

Danson said, 'Ketchup Entertainment.'

Forte continued, 'It's called Ketchup Entertainment. And they came in, bought the movie for a full theatrical release. And I'm so excited for people to see this.'

Danson asked, 'When did that happen?'

Forte replied, 'This would have been probably a year and a half ago. I kept hearing they were really trying to get it out early. We were doing Comic-Con last year, and at the time we signed on for Comic-Con, there was a scenario in which we were going to come out a month after Comic-Con.'

'And then I heard, 'Oh, it might be January-ish instead.' And then when I got to Comic-Con, they said, 'Oh, it's going to be August 28th.' And I'm like, 'Wait, but that's in four weeks.''

Danson clarified, 'No, no, of 2026. So part of you must have gone, 'Oh no.''

Forte responded, 'Well, look, it was just because it's as complicated a process as you get because they have to work with Warner Brothers to figure out all this stuff and there's a lot of legal mumbo jumbo that's got to go on.'

'So that made a lot of sense, and they also really love the movie and want to make sure that they get it out there properly. So waiting that amount of time, while it was tough to wait, at the same time, I'm like, this is a movie for a while I wrote off as dead and just thought it was never going to come out.'

'So, I can wait a little while longer to get them to release it the right way. August 28th. And I think it's coming out wide release all over the globe, same day.'

Danson replied, 'Fantastic.'

Forte added, 'I don't think I've ever been as excited for people to see a movie.'

Danson noted, 'And my assumption is that even if you didn't grow up, as we did, with Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, you don't have to have that backstory in your mind.'

Forte said, 'You don't need to know anything about those characters. It's an extra level of nostalgia. It's kind of, we will go and watch this movie and I'm pretty sure the feeling you'll have is the one that I had, which is you're spending this time with this group of old friends that you haven't seen in a while. And it's really a fun feeling.'

'And man, to be on screen with these things is a very special honor.'

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