While the canceled “Batgirl” film will not be coming to HBO Max, a select group of insiders will get a screening this week. “Batgirl” was only shown to the public once before its cancellation, at a test screening with temporary visual effects and score. Multiple sources have confirmed secret “funeral screenings” are happening on the Warner Bros. Pictures lot this week. This will just be for the cast and crew to see the results of their hard work before the film goes to the cineplex in the sky.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav decided to abandon the $90 million movie rather than releasing it, in favor of a tax write-offs. While the film will remain unfinished, it was already deep into post-production. It is believed the reason for this is because of the recent Warner Bros., Discovery merger which has the new company scrambling to cut $3 billion in cost. This would also explain the cancelation of the completed film “Scoob! Holiday Haunt.” But some are suspicious of this reasoning considering there are several other films that were nowhere near as far along that were not scrapped.
For the fans hoping this will be like Zack Snyder’s cut of the “Justice League,” which did eventually see the light of day, this will not be the case for “Batgirl.” The difference is “Justice League” was released to theaters, and it was not used by the studio as a tax write-off. Since “Batgirl” was used this way, a release could violate a whole bunch of rules are regulations.
There are even rumors all “Batgirl” footage will be destroyed to prove to the IRS the company will never see any revenue from this film. But this seems a bit drastic since other abandoned projects like the scrapped pilot for HBO’s first “Game of Thrones” spinoff “Bloodmoon” have not surfaced. That project’s footage was never destroyed, just heavily vaulted, and by heavily I mean even author George R.R. Martin has never seen it.
“Batgirl” filmmakers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah have also maintained they have no personal access to the footage. The director team even publicly disclosed the servers the footage and film were housed on are now blank.
As of right now, unless Warner Bros. Discovery decides to change their minds down the road and pay back the government, “Batgirl” will never be seen past the test and funeral screenings.
