How We Brought Zaslav To His Knees

RJ Writing Ink’s Story behind Coyote vs ACME, Part 4: Fighting Back

Hey, guys! RJ Writing Ink with The Game of Nerds here with part four of my series on the story of Coyote vs ACME. Today, we’re going to cover Zaslav’s attempts to shelve the movie, how the Internet revolted, and the relatively small part I had to play in getting the word out. Also, I’m making it clear in no uncertain terms that I do not like David Zaslav.

ZASLAVVVVVV!!!!!!

David Zaslav. Once the last CEO of Discovery, the man who helped oversee its acquisition and merger with Warner Bros and became the guy in charge. And ever since becoming the CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, one of the most hated figures in Hollywood!

Now, I have been writing for The Game of Nerds for years now, and I’m proud of its status as the last big independent entertainment blog. And during that time, I have made it no secret how I feel about cartoons: I love them with all my heart. Which also means that I hate seeing people calling them trash or acting like they’re just for kids. I even wrote an entire article arguing why they’re for all ages!

Things only got worse when Zaslav took charge of Warner Bros Discovery. And I get it: he was running a company that was in the red on debt that he had to pay back. That meant that he had to cut costs and find ways to get money back. But as I said in my initial post on the Great Purge of HBO Max, I think his decisions weren’t the best. I had to watch as he turned HBO Max, a platform that I had once seen as a hub for all the cartoons that I grew up watching, into a wasteland. And I kept making my opinion of the man known here on The Game of Nerds: I hate him. Earlier this year, Tubi managed to give all those beloved cartoons a new home, which led me to sing its praises. The bottom line, though, is that Zaslav is like the Zeus of the story of Coyote vs ACME, and I mean that in the worst way possible. And like Zeus, Zaslav decided to be cruel to our Sisyphus, Wile E. Coyote.

They couldn’t get away with this!

I actually don’t remember how or when I learned about Coyote vs ACME. And if Zaslav hadn’t done what he did, countless others and I might never have learned about the film until after the fact. So I guess it makes what happened a blessing in disguise, since the film got more attention than it would’ve otherwise. But it did. And so it was on November 9th, 2023, that Deadline reported that Warner Bros would be shelving Coyote vs ACME as a tax write-off. Despite, I might add, the fact that it was not only finished and ready to go, but had also tested well with audiences.

Looking back on it now, this moment feels so in line with Wile E. Coyote’s foundation as a creature of want and a Sisyphean character. He was getting ready to have his time in the spotlight. Like the story it was based on, the film was going to deconstruct the rules that governed Wile E.’s cartoons. This was basically the equivalent of Sisyphus deciding he was being unfairly punished, marching up to Olympus, and demanding that Zeus and the other gods also face justice for it. But then Zeus, in another act of petty cruelty, decided not only to banish him back to Tartarus, but to make it so that he couldn’t even move the boulder an inch. Replace the two with Wile E. Coyote and David Zaslav, and that is precisely what was happening here.

Chuck Jones had deliberately made Wile E. Coyote play on our sympathies, and I guess it had worked a little too well. Because for millions of people, he had become more than just this silly cartoon character. He was this symbol of determination in the face of impossible odds. We didn’t just want him to win at something: we needed him to win. That’s why there were so many parodies of him where he did win. And just when it looked like he was about to get the victory that we desperately wanted to see, this happened.

However, what happened next was something that the powers, the gods of this story, did not expect to happen: people got angry.

The Internet goes to war.

Zaslav had already managed to put a target on his back with the way he had been shelving movies and removing shows from HBO Max. That had earned him a lot of hate from both fans of the projects and the people who worked on them. And since the people who worked on those films need the jobs to make a living, this left many in the industry concerned. As I wrote in my own article at the time, Warner Bros had already promised to stop shelving movies, only to prove themselves liars by doing exactly that to Wile E.’s film. What made it even worse is that out of those who got to see it, with names like Phil Lord, Chris Miller, and Aditya Sood, they all had nothing but praise for it. They saw it as more than capable of earning back its budget. And so, over the span of the next few days, filmmakers and creatives in the entertainment industry revolted against Warner Bros. They started canceling deals with the company, rightfully thinking that they couldn’t be trusted. One person in Congress even called for the Government to look into it, calling the acts “predatory and anti-competitive.”

As for me, I didn’t learn about the film until after its initial cancellation. But once I did learn about it, combined with my previous animosity towards Zaslav, something inside me just…snapped. That led me to the first in what would be a series of articles covering the saga of Coyote vs ACME as it struggled to be seen. I didn’t care if it was impossible. I didn’t care if it might have never made its way to theaters. I couldn’t let this go unanswered, and neither could so many others. This was no longer just about Wile E. catching the Road Runner or rolling his boulder up the hill. It was about standing up to those in charge of the things we care about and telling them, “We won’t let you get away with this. Not anymore.”

So we started helping Sisyphus move the boulder again.

After Warner Bros made the initial announcement shelving the film, it only took a few days and a lot of heavy backlash to get them to reverse course. At first, it felt like we had won. All it took was someone to buy the rights to the film and distribute it, and that would be the end of it. But we should’ve known better.

Of all the underhanded things to do…

In February 2024, TheWrap reported the truth: Warner Bros likely had no intention of letting the film see the light of day. Their backtracking was just a stalling tactic to run down the clock until the next quarter. At which point, they could then shelve the film and get their tax write-off. The worst part? They had intentionally set their selling price to a ridiculously high number to discourage prospective buyers. They were rigging the game against Wile E. Coyote yet again. And, as much as I wanted to think we could win, I knew that there wasn’t much hope. Still, I spent the next year watching and waiting to see what would happen. And yes, if someone managed to get their hands on a copy of the film and decided to release it online, I fully intended to watch it.

In the meantime, everyone who worked on and supported the film continued to make noise online, even when others forgot about it. At the same time, though, Warner Bros continued its disregard towards the characters that helped make it what it is today. It wouldn’t be another year before the story finally changed for the better, as we got the metaphorical boulder further up the hill.

Ketchup Entertainment, Saviors of the Looney Tunes

Up until around a year ago, I had never even heard of the company known as Ketchup Entertainment. They’re an indie film production and distribution company that’s been around since 2011, but only recently have they been making a name for themselves by rescuing high-profile movies that got shelved by their creators. The one most relevant to this story, though, is another Looney Tunes movie that nearly got axed: The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie. It’s this funny tribute to the sci-fi b movies of the 1950s where Daffy and Porky have to save the world from a threat beyond the stars. It was supposed to either release on HBO Max or late-night on Cartoon Network, but thanks to Ketchup, it got a theatrical release. Which is important, because this was the first time the Looney Tunes ever got a fully animated film in theaters. Ever.

No, really. In its almost 100-year history, the Looney Tunes have never had a fully animated, made-for-theaters movie. Isn’t that crazy? We have a review of it up for those who are interested. However, what matters is that this act endeared Ketchup Entertainment to Looney Tunes fans. After what they did next, though, I think it’s safe to say that Ketchup has gone from ‘endearing’ to ‘saviors of the Looney Tunes.

The News We all Wanted to Hear

In late March 2025, I wrote a piece about a report from Deadline claiming that Ketchup Entertainment was in talks with Warner Bros to buy the distribution rights to Coyote vs ACME. For the first time in months, I dared to hope that we could get that boulder up the hill. I didn’t have to wait long. Less than a week later, the news that we all wanted to hear went public. For $50 million, Ketchup Entertainment had bought the worldwide distribution rights to Coyote vs ACME, and it would be coming to theaters.

We had done it. Despite everything that the universe had thrown at us, despite the powers that be thinking that it didn’t matter, we had done it! Wile E. Coyote, our very own Sisyphus, had won his fight for dignity. But that was only half the battle, with the real fight ready to begin.

Getting the word out

You would think that helping to ensure that Coyote vs ACME got its day in theaters would mean our job was done. However, getting it in theaters was just the halfway point in rolling the boulder up the hill. The next step would be harder: proving the proverbial gods wrong.

I doubt I’ll ever know the reason why Zaslav chose to shelve Wile E.’s movie in the first place. Given his track record against cartoons, though, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say he, or whoever made the decision, did it because they thought no one would care. They must not have thought that the movie would do well, and they weren’t without precedent for thinking like that. Looney Tunes: Back in Action and Space Jam: A New Legacy had both done badly at the box office. At the end of the day, though, I think that Zaslav and the other suits had really underestimated just how much these characters meant to people. Warner Bros might have forgotten, but the truth is that they owe their existence to cartoons. The Looney Tunes were what initially made them relevant in pop culture. Entire generations grew up laughing at the antics of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote, and the countless other characters that make up this Looney pantheon. And even though the company has branched out into different genres and platforms, the Looney Tunes have remained relevant to countless millions.

And it was time to remind Warner Bros of that fact.

Zaslav was wrong about everything.

The next indication of how wrong Zaslav had been came at the film’s panel at SDCC 2025. As I mentioned in my coverage of the panel, the hall where it was hosted was near capacity. And the panelists, including Dave Green, Eric Bauza, and Will Forte, weren’t shy about why they were there. They were there because we wouldn’t keep quiet about the film, or the injustice that it was being dealt. We protested online and in public, and refused to let the movie die. And the funny part to all this? If Zalsav had just let the movie release when it was supposed to, it would have been just another summer flick. By trying to shelve it and making it the center of attention, he managed to make it bigger than ever and make himself out to be the bad guy. Again! So, as painful as it was to go through all of this to get the movie in theaters, it may have been a blessing in disguise.

But that still doesn’t answer one important question: does Wile E. Coyote get the boulder up the hill? Does he defy the gods of his life and win? For that matter, does he finally get the chance to catch the Road Runner? All of that will be discussed in the final part, my spoiler review of Coyote vs ACME.