Many remain shocked by the decision from Warner Bros. Discovery to cancel the Batgirl movie, despite filming being complete.
Now, directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are setting the record straight about what went down.
“It was not a talent problem on our part, the actress, or even the quality of the movie,” El Arbi said in an interview with SKRIPT.
“We were right in the middle of editing, there was still a lot of work to be done!”
“It was not like the movie was finished But they told us it was a strategic change.”
“New management. And they could save some cash.”
As for whether the pair have a copy of footage, we have some bad news.
“Adil [El Arbi] called me and told me, ‘Go ahead! Shoot everything on your phone!’ I went on the server… And everything was blocked,” Fallah said.
“There was no way to access the film. We were: ‘Fucking shit! All the scenes with Batman we didn’t get to keep!”
There was instant support from fans across social media when the controversial move to scrap the $90 million movie was revealed.
“Seeing all the support on Twitter, and even from big directors Edgar Wright and James Gunn, who sent us supportive messages, it was comforting,” Fallah said.
El Arbi agreed: “After all we make movies for the audience, not for us. We just hope that one day the movie will be released, for the cast and crew. We are a small family.”
David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery revealed during an earnings call recently that the DC Extended Universe is getting an overhaul, and that Batgirl was not a part of that.
“We have done a reset” he said earlier this month.
“There will be a team with a 10-year plan focusing just on DC,” he said, teasing that the DC movies will now be exclusively launched in theaters.
“It’s very similar to the structure that Alan Horn and Bob Iger put together effectively with [Marvel Studios chief] Kevin Feige at Disney.”
Zaslav explained that “our conclusion is that with expensive direct-to-streaming movies — in terms of how people are consuming them on the platform, how often people buy a service for it, and how it gets nourished over time — there is no comparison to what happens when you launch a film in the theaters.”
“So, this idea of expensive films going to streaming… we cannot find an economic case for it. And so we’re making a strategic shift.”
Leslie Grace, who played the titular role of Batgirl, revealed that she was “proud of the love, hard work and intention of all of our incredible cast and tireless crew put into this film over 7 months in Scotland.”
“To every Batgirl fan – THANK YOU for the love and belief, allowing me to take on the cape and become, as Babs said best, ‘my own damn hero!’ Batgirl for life!”
What are your thoughts on the directors losing access to the footage?
Hit the comments.
Check out the full interview below.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.
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