Wile E. Coyote Ally Pickets Warner Bros. in Costume to Demand the Release of ‘Coyote vs. Acme’

A lone, costumed, umbrella-wielding Looney Tunes fan is single-handedly trying to drum up public outcry over the cancellation of the live-action/animated comedy Coyote vs. Acme after the film finished production. Fight hard, comrade, and look out for riot police, giant red Xs and dangling pianos.

Back in late 2023, controversial Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav pulled numerous completed projects from the media mega-conglomerate’s release schedule that the previous Warner Bros. regime greenlit prior to the merger that put him in charge of the Warner Bros. movie empire the year before. Among the list of franchise films that Zaslav axed in favor of a tax cut was Coyote vs. Acme, a legal comedy with a star-studded cast that would have provided a fresh take on the hapless cartoon coyote’s constantly backfiring pursuit of his mortal enemy, the Roadrunner.

Thanks to Zaslav’s love of crooked Hollywood accounting, Wile E. Coyote will likely never get his day in court — at least, not on a screen where any of us can see it. However, yesterday in Los Angeles County, one lone legal activist picketed the Warner Bros. studio lot to let Zaslav know that, even if he brings down the proverbial overhang upon which Coyote vs. Acme was perched, some of us still aren’t willing to look down.

This fan’s full-costume demonstration follows similar expressions of outrage from the A-list creatives who helped make Coyote vs. Acme not just a solid live-action/animated comedy film, but “the best of its kind since ROGER RABBIT” according to the select few filmmakers who got to see an advanced screening prior to Zaslav pulling the plug.

Most recently, Saturday Night Live legend Will Forte, who played Wile E. Coyote’s lawyer in the canned classic, went on an expletive-laden rant about the decision to seal the lovingly constructed project from the public. “It is such a delightful movie,” Forte told his interviewers at MovieWeb last month. “It deserves so much better than it got. I can’t tell you possibly why the decision was made to not release it, but it makes my blood boil.” 

Even the typically measured company man John Cena, who appropriately played the legal counsel for the ACME corporation in Coyote vs. Acme, couldn't find it within himself to enthusiastically defend Zaslav's decision to cancel the film post-completion. “I would have to think that it was shelved for the right reasons and it was a good business decision,” Cena said of WBD choosing a tax break over his movie before he passive-aggressively added, “I think I would have tremendous regret and shame if I look back on the legacy of the movie, and it was shelved for reasons other than that.”

Miraculously, even though Zaslav made the decision to drop an anvil on the head of Coyote vs. Acme nearly a year and a half ago, fan outcry over the film’s cancellation hasn’t ceased, either on the Warner Bros. lot or on Twitter where the above post went mega-viral. Many Looney Tunes lovers have gone so far as to call the costumed picketer a hero, and, although their identity is yet unknown, their message is clear to anyone willing to listen.

Twenty bucks says that costume came from Will Forte’s closet.