Batgirl cancelled

[Foxbat]

I’m surprised nobody has mentioned this yet but I believe poor preview screenings were instrumental in this. Apparently there are tax advantages in canning the movie now and a lot of cash can be clawed back (the dark art of accountancy is beyond my ken).

It’s rumoured a new long term strategy will be put in place in an effort to emulate the planning used by the Marvel Universe movies.

There’s a detailed explanation here (although I have no idea how accurate it might be). If preview screenings numbers and what they mean and how they are used are to be believed, there’s more than meets the eye going on here.

Behind the Cancellation of ‘Batgirl’

The HBO Max film fell victim to a change in corporate strategy.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

 

[Rodders]

Is this a new movie, or the Batgirl TV Series which was out recently?

Nevermind, i just read the article.

Interesting that they should choose to make a Batgirl movie so soon after the aforementioned TV Series was cancelled. I haven't seen it, but I've yet to read anything positive about it.

 

[MaxRelaxman]

I really wanted to see Keaton as Batman again. Guess I'll have to wait for the Flash movie.
Speaking of the Flash movie, I hope they recast the Flash instead of just canceling any future movies Ezra Miller might show up in.

 

[BAYLOR]

It must have been a pretty bad film For them to have scrapped it.

 

[BAYLOR]

I really wanted to see Keaton as Batman again. Guess I'll have to wait for the Flash movie.
Speaking of the Flash movie, I hope they recast the Flash instead of just canceling any future movies Ezra Miller might show up in.

Miller had a very promising career in front of him , all ruined now.

 

[Rodders]

He sounds like he’s got a lot of issues to resolve. I wonder how many of them can be attributed to the pressures of fame?

 

[Foxbat]

I think the article shows a pretty confusing set up in the production. Is it a movie? Is it for streaming? It's probably the old jack of all trades, master of none scenario. Never a good sign when lots of money is being spent and nobody's really sure who the target audience is.

 

[Dave]

t must have been a pretty bad film For them to have scrapped it.

Not according to the discussion I watched on TV. It just didn't grab the attention of the preview screening watchers. Maybe this is the beginning of the tide turning for the Superhero movie? There have been rather a lot recently.

 

[MaxRelaxman]

If they followed the Marvel model of movie making where it feels like they could swap out any other character and you'd have the same movie, I can see why it wouldn't grab people.
Don't get me wrong, I like the Marvel movies but I'm usually doing something else while I'm watching.

 

[BAYLOR]

Not according to the discussion I watched on TV. It just didn't grab the attention of the preview screening watchers. Maybe this is the beginning of the tide turning for the Superhero movie? There have been rather a lot recently.

I think they would be better off to have released it with the hopes that it might earn back some of its huge costs.


Its possible that the tide had already begun to turn on this genre well before. The films are making money but the box office number seem to be to be dropping off. It could be The whole marvelverse everything is linked and connected approach by Disney has oversaturated the audience.In the case of DC, thye have a few decent films but nothing thats quite matched what Disney has come up with.

On thing they could do which spark interest isa for Disney anss Warner Bothers to get together and do a Mavel vs DC film . There have been crossover but only in the comics which is a pity.

 

[BAYLOR]

If they followed the Marvel model of movie making where it feels like they could swap out any other character and you'd have the same movie, I can see why it wouldn't grab people.
Don't get me wrong, I like the Marvel movies but I'm usually doing something else while I'm watching.

They've reached saturation point with audiences. That's the problem.

 

[MaxRelaxman]

<snip>

Its possible that the tide had already begun to turn on this genre well before. The films are making money but the box office number seem to be to be dropping off. It could be The whole marvelverse everything is linked and connected approach by Disney has oversaturated the audience.In the case of DC, thye have a few decent films but nothing thats quite matched what Disney has come up with.
<snip>

That's my biggest gripe with comics in general. Batman's Court of Owls storyline for example was spread out over multiple Bat Family titles.

 

[Foxbat]

I think they would be better off to have released it with the hopes that it might earn back some of its huge costs.

From the article, it looks like they can write it off and recoup tax benefits. When you think that they not only spent around 50 million dollars making it and, if they released it, they would have to spend millions more on a marketing campaign trying to get people to go and see it. There must come a time when it’s just not worth continuing.

The preview viewing average score was in the region of 60%, which is not unusual for an advance screening. It’s not great but plenty of movies have recovered from this kind of figure and been successful. That’s why I think there’s something else going on other than it simply being a bad movie. Probably internal politics with a new CEO and a new vision.

 

[J-WO]

Imagine if this had happened to a truly game changing series like The Sopranos, Chernobyl or The Wire. Or, indeed, Star trek or Doctor Who when they were first filmed. It could happen. Just for money and 'corporate strategy'. The thought rather chills me.

 

[Dave]

Imagine if this had happened to a truly game changing series like The Sopranos, Chernobyl or The Wire. Or, indeed, Star trek or Doctor Who when they were first filmed. It could happen. Just for money and 'corporate strategy'. The thought rather chills me.

There have been TV series that were made but some episodes were never shown. Firefly is the one that I know about, although it was released on DVD (the suggestion here being that the Batgirl film will never see the light of day.) Still, fan complaint letters do work on these occasions.

 

[Brian G Turner]

It just didn't grab the attention of the preview screening watchers.

You mean the other DC Universe films did?!

 

[Dave]

You mean the other DC Universe films did?!

I watched an interview on TV early on a Saturday morning. There was someone who was a "Batgirl Fan" and an some industry magazine reporter, who were both asked questions by the presenter. The "Batgirl Fan" loved the film. The industry magazine reporter could only find fault with it, and the interview got quite heated. They had to apologise later for the reporter's swearing. What I took from it, was that there must be a market out there for the film amongst other "Batgirl Fans" no matter how bad the film is.

 

[HareBrain]

The "Batgirl Fan" loved the film. The industry magazine reporter could only find fault with it, and the interview got quite heated.

What was the level of debate, out of interest? Did one side make specific points the other side rejected for specific reasons, or was it just an emotion-driven playground spat?

I think some cultural products have adherents that just love them, in the same illogical way that people love other people: they either can't see their faults, or even when they can they can't bear them to be attacked. I don't know if this was always the case. I actually quite envy it -- there's no book, film or TV thing I'd say I feel truly passionate about (apart from my own of course), and that's probably been the case since my twenties.

 

[Dave]

What was the level of debate, out of interest? Did one side make specific points the other side rejected for specific reasons

I can't actually remember the specific points, but it was more on the level of how the franchise had run out of steam (I think) and that the screenplay was just going over the same old ground. As far as I remember, there was no actual criticism of the acting or any particular specific scenes.

What I found amusing was the the so called "fan" (which is a word derived from "fanatic") seemed to remain quite calm.

I think some cultural products have adherents that just love them, in the same illogical way that people love other people: they either can't see their faults

There definitely are, and you see that in old posts on SFFChronicles about films and books that have, if not completely lost their appeal, have worn a little with time passing i.e. Harry Potter.

 

[Vladd67]

Thinking about the discussion between the fan and the critic reminds me of the rotten tomato ratings when the critics either give some thing a rating over 90% and the fans under 40, or vice versa where the fans love something but the professional critics hate it. Showing just how out of touch h people in the media are with the man on the street at times.