COYOTE VS. ACME Star Will Forte Felt “White Hot Anger” Over Shelving: “I Don't Think We Needed This Crazy Journey”
The saga of Coyote vs. Acme has been one of the strangest Hollywood rollercoasters in recent memory, and now one of its stars is speaking candidly about how it all went down.
Will Forte isn’t sugarcoating his feelings about Warner Bros. shelving the finished Looney Tunes live-action movie. In fact, he describes his reaction in the most intense terms possible.
“Extreme frustration, fiery frustration, a lot of anger, white hot anger,” Forte tells Entertainment Weekly about his reaction to Coyote vs. Acme being pulled. “But then ultimately, that's mixed with pride in this movie we've done.
“And also, who knows? Everything happens for a reason, and it is certainly possible that the crazy journey that this movie is taking will help get more eyes on it, because it's a story people know about a little bit. But I don't think we needed this crazy journey.”
Coyote vs. Acme is a hybrid live-action and animation family comedy centered on Wile E. Coyote finally snapping and taking legal action against the Acme Corporation.
After years of malfunctioning rocket skates, faulty explosives, and every other gadget imaginable backfiring in his endless chase of the Road Runner, the desert’s most persistent predator decides to sue the company that supplied his endless stream of disasters.
It’s a hilarious high-concept idea built around one of the most iconic Looney Tunes characters ever created. And according to Forte, the movie actually delivered.
“I remember when I first heard that Warner Bros. was shelving it, I had not yet seen the movie. I had been talking to people before and hearing about the test scores being really good, and then I was like, 'Oh, maybe it's not as good as they were telling me' when it got shelved,” Forte continues.
“I got to see it. I love it. I was so proud of it. It was so maddening because it was this beautiful, special little movie that was something I would've been able to share with my kids.”
The film was originally set for a summer 2023 release and was completely finished when Warner Bros. decided to vault it in order to claim a reported $30 million tax write-off.
The move sparked serious backlash from fans, filmmakers, and industry insiders who couldn’t believe a completed movie based on such beloved characters was being locked away.
Even more frustrating for many was the studio’s initial refusal to let another distributor step in. For a while, it looked like Wile E. Coyote might finally meet a fate worse than falling off a cliff.
Then, in early 2025, a deal was struck with Ketchup Entertainment to bring the movie back from the brink. Now, after that “crazy journey,” Coyote vs. Acme is officially set to hit theaters on August 28.
For fans of the Looney Tunes, this whole ordeal has felt surreal. These characters have been part of pop culture for generations, and seeing a finished film nearly erased for accounting reasons didn’t sit right with a lot of people.
Now the question is whether this wild detour will actually help the film when it finally arrives. Forte may not think the movie needed the drama, but there’s no doubt the story behind it has turned Coyote vs. Acme into a film that a lot of people will want to come out and support.
After everything, it’s kind of poetic that a movie about a character constantly blown up by faulty products refused to stay buried. Wile E. Coyote has always been persistent. Turns out, this movie is too.