Earlier this month, Warner Bros. Discovery kicked off a wave of cancellations and cost-cutting measures by scrapping DC’s $90 million “Batgirl” movie starring Leslie Grace, which was already in post-production. In a new interview with French outlet Skript, “Batgirl” co-directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah revealed that the studio blocked their access to footage after axing the film.
“Adil called and told me, ‘Go ahead. Shoot everything on your mobile,’” Fallah said. “I went on the server … Everything was gone.”
El Arbi added: “We were like, ‘Fucking shit!’ All the scenes with Batman in them!”
Earlier in the interview, the co-directors explained Warner Bros. Discovery’s rationale for shelving their movie.
“The guys from Warner told us it was not a talent problem from our part or the actress, or even the quality of the movie,” El Arbi said. “They told us it was a strategic change. There was new management, and they wanted to save some money.”
Fallah added: “First, when I heard the news, I was shocked. I did not know how to react. I wanted to break stuff, cry. … But seeing all this support on Twitter … even big directors, from Edgar Wright to James Gunn, sent us supporting messages.”
“We just hope that one day, the movie would be released,” El Arbi said. “For the cast, the crew … we are a small family.”
El Arbi and Fallah hope the movie will eventually see the light of day, similar to the widely demanded “Snyder Cut” of “Justice League,” which came out in 2021, four years after the original cut. However, the co-directors admitted that the movie would still require “a lot of work” in order to be released.
“It cannot be released in its current state,” El Arbi said. “There’s no VFX … we still had some scenes to shoot. So if one day they want us to release the ‘Batgirl’ movie, they’d have to give us the means to do it. To finish it properly with our vision.”
Warner Bros. Discovery did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.
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From Variety US