According to rumors from the Warner Bros. lot, as reported The Hollywood Reporter, secret screenings were held this week of Batgirl for people who worked on the movie. These have been dubbed “funeral screenings” by those involved. Cast, crew, executives, and anyone affiliated with the film reportedly got to see what was made. After this, the movie is locked away forever in the Warner Bros. vault to enable them to claim a tax write-down.
An early and high profile victim of new Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David “The Axeman” Zaslav, the movie was unceremoniously dumped despite being deep into post-production. The movie that was screened was far from a finished product. Many visual effects were yet to be inserted and the score was yet to be applied.
Natalie Holt announced in September 2021 that she would compose the score. She reached out to Danny Elfman regarding her plans to use the original Batman theme for Michael Keaton’s character, and she received his permission.
Earlier this month the internet was aflame with the news that Warner Bros. Discovery had canned the 2022 release for Batgirl both theatrically and on HBO Max. Rumors and insider comments were everywhere. TheWrap reported that suits at Warner’s felt the film “simply did not work” and went against the new mandate from CEO David Zaslav that DC was to be a big theatrical event.
Collider, Rolling Stone, and Reuters all reported that test screening responses were negative, and Collider cited sources saying that Batgirl was:
“…a huge disappointment [that] looked cheap in comparison to other films…”
Rolling Stone said that the top tier at Warner Bros. Discovery determined that spending an additional $7–9 million during post-production in an effort to bring Batgirl to the level of other theatrical DC films would be pointless. The Guardian repors that this makes Batgirl among the most expensive canceled cinematic projects ever.
The film was directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah from a screenplay by Christina Hodson, and starred Leslie Grace as Batgirl, alongside J. K. Simmons, Jacob Scipio, Brendan Fraser, and Michael Keaton.
RIP Batgirl.
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