Inside the 'Funeral Screening' That Preceded Coyote vs. Acme's Long Road to Theatres

A film that Warner Bros. locked in its vault as a tax write-off reaches cinemas on 28 August — nearly three years after its makers held a gathering they called a funeral for it.

"Coyote vs. Acme," a live-action-animation hybrid in which Looney Tunes character Wile E. Coyote sues the Acme Corporation over its faulty gadgets, stars Will Forte and Lana Condor, with John Cena, Tone Bell, Martha Kelly, Luis Guzmán, P.J. Byrne and John Early rounding out the cast. Warner Bros. shelved the completed film in November 2023, taking a $30 million tax write-off rather than releasing it (Variety).

Days after that decision, the studio allowed the film to be shopped to other distributors (Variety). In March 2025, Ketchup Entertainment acquired the worldwide rights in a sale valued in the $50 million range, and the deal closed later that month (Deadline).

Before the rescue, though, the filmmakers staged what they called a "funeral screening." Director Dave Green shared the finished film with Forte and Condor, who had never seen the final cut. He described the mood as "celebratory," comparing it to a New Orleans jazz funeral — mourning and joy tangled together (Variety).

Condor's experience was darker. Speaking at the film's Los Angeles premiere, held on a Wednesday, she called the funeral screening "horrible" and said she had blamed herself, wondering whether she was the problem (Variety). Green admitted there were "many, many times" he thought the film would never come out (Variety).

The path back to screens was gradual. Green and Condor discussed the film's first public screening with fans at Comic-Con in July 2026 (Variety). A press screening followed at the Screening Room on 11 August 2026 (Variety). Now, Ketchup Entertainment brings the film to theatres on 28 August.

For a finished movie to be shelved rather than released is unusual but not unprecedented — studios sometimes write off completed projects for tax purposes, effectively treating the production as a loss. What set this case apart was the vocal response from the filmmakers, the public fan interest, and ultimately another distributor stepping in to give the film a theatrical run it otherwise would never have had.