After receiving news that Warner Bros. Discovery has cancelled their film late in production, Batgirl directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah found they had already lost complete access to the movie they’d worked on for so long. According to a new interview, Fallah attempted to record even a bit of the footage on their smartphone after being told that HBO Max would not be moving forward with the film. However, the directors discovered the servers containing the work they had done was already locked away — which means while Batgirl hasn’t been destroyed, all the people who worked on the movie have absolutely nothing to show for it.
Via SKRIPT: “Asked if they still had some footage of the film, Arbi and Fallah said no and that the studio had blocked their access to the production’s servers. ‘No, we have nothing! Adil called me and said, “go ahead shoot some things on your mobile phone.” I went on the server and everything was blocked,’ said Fallah.”
El Arbi also said that they were told the decision about Batgirl’s cancelation was done because of a shifting management strategy and was not because of the talent or the progress the movie was making. The directors admit that the movie still needed a lot of work — even if they had gotten the footage off the servers, there’s no way they would have been able to create a film in line with their original vision from what they’ve finished so far (not that Warner Bros. Discovery would ever allow such a release).
Fallah said that he couldn’t believe it was happening, and with good reason: This kind of cancelation is unprecedented. At $US90 ($125) million already spent on the film, cancelling the remaining production to save some bucks on a small tax credit still feels amazingly short-sighted. Both directors still hope that one day the film will be finished and released… we just hope they get to see their work again.
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