Warner Bros. Discovery has gone back on its promise to cease its tax write-offs by cancelling an upcoming animated Scooby-Doo film during production. The merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery, Inc. at the end of last year was an expensive one which resulted in a mass culling of shows and movies, including the completed Batgirl, to recoup the $3 billion in debt new CEO David Zaslav had inherited from the merger. Though Zaslav recently indicated the studio was done with these widely panned decisions, it appears that may not be the case.
Following the shock cancellation of Scoob! Holiday Haunt this past August, it's now been revealed that another Scooby-Doo movie has been scrapped at WBD as part of their tax write-off decision making.
During a recent interview with YouTubers JayBee & Milly, storyboard artist Carolyn Gair confirmed the film's shelving and the financial reasoning behind it. Gair, who was also supposed to be a Director of Animation on the project, revealed that the film would've included the Hex Girls as well as three new original songs. See what Gair shared in the video above and comments below:
I think the Haunted High Rise was even funnier than the first, because we had the Hex Girls, and new songs, and we pulled out all the stops. We had motorcycle chases throughout the hallways. Joe called me and said, “Has the studio been in touch with you?” And I said, “No.” I think this was the beginning of October, and he said, “Oh, well somebody should be reaching out to you, I’m afraid it got shelved and it’s a financial decision and I think Warner Bros. is getting a tax credit for shelving it and canceling it, so it’s dead dead dead, I think because of the merger with Discovery.” They just took a look at everything that was going to be going into streaming, everything that was going to be going into HBO Max, and just drew a red line through everything, figured out how much they spent. Do you know, the saddest part is it would’ve cost the same to shelve it as it would to make it, because it was already lock picture and in animation. That was another reason for them doing the two movies back-to-back because they had an animation studio they could be feeding work to. It seems so sad, since it’s already so close, but I do not understand the politics or how financial decisions at Warner Bros. get made, but I don’t think they’re going to resuscitate this. My producer keeps saying he doesn’t think it’s going to come back to life. But, maybe, who knows? It was locked picture, all dialogue, songs were recorded, it was ready for animation.
Has The Scooby-Doo Movie Cancellation Restarted A Worrying WBD Trend?
It was just last month that WBD announced it was finished cancelling shows and movies, claiming that it was "done with that chapter." A definitive statement by its CFO, Gunnar Wiedenfels, strongly asserted that it was leaving its financial restructuring in 2022, presumably permitting the economic freedom to pursue projects unimpeded in 2023. However, the cancellation of Scooby-Doo! and the Haunted High Rise completely betrays this promise, suggesting that WBD may not be financially stable just yet.
This past year saw a slew of projects cancelled by the studio, including Westworld, Batgirl, and Batman: Caped Crusader, much to the disappointment of many audiences. This has seen an advent of many fan movements hoping for their respective projects to be saved or moved to another distributor, but as of today, only Minx has been picked up and given a second chance, with Starz opting to air seasons 1 and 2. The critically acclaimed comedy's rescue ultimately lends hope for other projects cancelled at WBD to have a similar outcome.
The cancelled Scooby-Doo movie isn't the only project to be destined to a tax write-off since WBD's promise at the beginning of January, as Snowpiercer was also cancelled prematurely, despite an announcement that season 4 would conclude the show. It is currently being shopped around to other networks, though it remains to be seen if it will ever air. WBD's disregard for its promise is frustrating not only for audiences, but also the hard-working casts and crews who dedicate many hours to projects that ultimately never see the light of day. This most recent cancellation reintroduces the paranoia that no project, even ones in active development, is safe from being axed.
Source: JayBee & Milly