The studio CEO has been pleaded with by the first trans actress to play a significant role in a DC Comics blockbuster to reconsider his decision to cancel the movie.
The actress claims the cast and crew “poured our hearts into the making of this movie” and claims the uproar over the decision will now guarantee box office success.
Leslie Grace, who portrays Batgirl in the movie, is portrayed by Ivory Aquino, 42, as Alysia Yeoh, Batgirl’s closest friend. As Batman, Michael Keaton is back.
The $90 million movie, which was in post-production when Warner Bros. Discovery announced its August 3 cancellation, was filmed in Glasgow, Scotland, from November to March.
The Hollywood Reporter disclosed on Wednesday that studio officials had arranged “funeral screenings,” during which the movie was screened to a select group of executives before being sent to the archives.
Aquino pleaded with David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, to save the movie after learning the news, claiming that the decision had left her “weeping from sadness.”
Hello, Mr. Zaslav I just saw an article @THR regarding purported “funeral viewing” of #Batgirl and the potential for destruction of the video thereafter, she tweeted.
If this is the case, I beg that this measure be rethought as one of many us who put our souls into producing this movie.
Despite my best efforts over the last four weeks to maintain my composure, I sometimes found myself sobbing out of sadness, and today was one of those evenings.
The movie follows Brendan Fraser’s character Firefly as he battles Batgirl, who is really Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Commissioner Gordon.
After losing his job, health insurance, and the ability to care for his ailing wife, Firefly resorted to a life of crime.
Those who have seen the now-cancelled movie claim that Michael Keaton’s portrayal of Batman was limited to a few moments, and that the costumes lacked quality.
According to Matt McGloin for Cosmic Book News, “I’ll say I’m not that shocked Batgirl was cancelled given it involves an awakened Latino Batgirl and Barbara Gordon in a narrative that sounds plain horrible.”
The New York Post was also informed by a source that “they fear a horrific Batgirl is going to be irredeemable.”
Additionally, Steven Weintraub, the editor-in-chief of Collider, tweeted: “Spoke to individuals who watched #Batgirl, and they felt it was a tremendous letdown.
The clothes, particularly Keaton’s Batman suit, “also looked cheap.”
However, Aquino argued that it was incorrect to characterise the tale as “awake,” since she regarded it as a father-daughter tale and a reflection of the times.
It just came together that way because of writing that mirrors the society we live in, she remarked, despite the fact that Batgirl has been called a “woke” movie.
‘I was hoping it would resonate with other children around the world, grown and not-so-grown, who hold their fathers in the highest esteem and who could see Batgirl as a story of that special bond,’ said the author.
‘For me, more than anything, it is a father-daughter story which hits close to home as my Dad passed away a year ago, shortly before I booked this project.
Talking to her cast members would “be like putting salt on a still-open wound,” according to Aquino, who said she had been unable to express her anger and disappointment.
She expressed appreciation for Zaslav’s hard push to manage the studio’s finances.
Since becoming leadership of the merged Warner Bros. and Discovery giant, he has pushed swiftly to cut expenses in the combined business, with an anticipated $3 billion in cost savings estimated from removing redundancies.
One of his boldest acts was to abruptly cancel the $300 million CNN+ streaming service just a few weeks after it had begun operation.
In addition to cancelling Batgirl, he also decided against making the $40 million-costed Scoob! sequel, Scoob!: Holiday Haunt.
The cast and crew, however, are “fellow human beings and artists,” according to Aquino, who pushed Zaslav to see them as “more than widgets.”
She said that she was sure the controversy surrounding the movie’s postponement meant it would now surpass box office projections.
If there hadn’t been a marketing budget for Batgirl a month ago, she said, “I’d hazard to guess it has been taken care of by the course of events these last few weeks.”
We have had the good fortune to have such fantastic fans from the start, both in Glasgow, where we shot, and throughout the globe.
“Now that more people are aware of our labour of love, they are excited to see the film,”
“I really hope you get to read this letter,” she said in closing. Release Batgirl, please. She has always been the underdog and can only rise.
Since the day the news first emerged earlier this month, Grace has been silent over the decision to cancel the release of her movie.
She posted on Instagram, saying, “I am proud of the love, hard effort, and intention all of our wonderful cast and hardworking crew put into this film over 7 months in Scotland.”
“I feel fortunate to have worked with real masters and created connections that will last a lifetime!”
‘To every Batgirl fan: THANK YOU for your support and encouragement, which have enabled me to don the cape and become, in Babs’s words, “my own damn hero”! Batgirl forever!
Aquino’s letter was released at the same time that ousted HBO executives were railing against Warner Bros. Discovery, the network’s new parent company, and accusing it of eradicating diversity by firing non-white employees in order to save money.
According to a story in the Daily Beast on Thursday, which cited two former HBO executives who wished to remain anonymous, there were apparently roughly 70 layoffs at the company in the previous month, with up to 13 of those employees being people of colour.
Jen Kim, an Asian woman who worked as the international team’s senior vice president, and Kaela Barnes, a black woman who worked on Kim’s team, were allegedly among those let go.
One of the former executives said that “a number of black and brown individuals lost their jobs,” adding that the layoffs “amplified the lack of diversity at HBO.”
One of the executives commented, “I don’t believe anybody realises precisely how white the workforce is.”
The executives said Discovery, which purchased Warner Bros, the parent company of HBO, in an April merger, had a distinct programming strategy that they worry will be promoted on the premium cable network.
HBO Max and Discovery+ are anticipated to join at some point, and the merged platform may even get a new name.
A former executive said that HBO Max was “tuned to HBO Max,” but Discovery+ is “more wide audience platform.”
The insider stated, alluding to the Chip and Joanna Gaines-hosted home improvement programme Fixer Upper: Welcome Home, “I believe Discovery is simply a very “all” audience, [they] don’t want to develop stuff that are political, current, alienate Middle America—more Chip and Joanna.”