The film about the superheroine had already been shot, all that was missing was post-production. Now the Hollywood studio Warner Bros. is said to have decided not to show the film after all – neither in the cinema nor via streaming. What’s behind the demolition?
Your film should end up in the drawer: the “Batgirl” leading actress Leslie Grace (27) at a gala of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, USA, September 25, 2021.
So far it has only been seen in a supporting role: the Batgirl, a second-rate heroine, alongside the famous Batman, that bat-man with pointed ears and a black coat. In the coming months, the female version of the superhero should have made her breakthrough in a major solo performance. Ultimately, the Hollywood studio Warner Bros. wanted to dedicate a film of the same name to the Batgirl.
Now everything is different. News leaked to American media on Tuesday that “Batgirl” will never be shown, neither in streaming nor in cinemas. This shreds a film project that has cost the client $90 million so far.
The leading actress Leslie Grace is sobered, the Belgian director duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are “shocked” in a statement. The rest of the film world is puzzling over the motives and is looking for plausible explanations for the demolition. Three different explanations are circulating.
1. “Batgirl” no longer fits into the strategy of Warner Bros.
Batgirl was planned at a time when Warner wanted exclusive films for its HBO Max streaming service. The film was thus optimized for small screens and tailored to a rather small budget of 70 million dollars.
However, since Warner Bros. was realigned last year, the focus on streaming no longer fits into the overall company strategy. David Zaslav, head of the new joint venture Warner Brothers Discovery, wants to move away from streaming and is increasingly refocusing his resources on prestigious blockbuster films that are shown in cinemas.
Filming for Batgirl took seven months in Scotland. Elaborate backdrops were installed in a quarter in Glasgow, January 10, 2022.
In the case of “Batgirl”, meanwhile, the costs have exploded: according to American media reports, the film spent $90 million instead of $70 million, and some publications report even higher amounts. Due to delays on the set due to the Covid-19 pandemic, costs could not be reduced.
Now “Batgirl” is too expensive for streaming, but too small for the cinema. Instead of continuing to waste money on post-production, distribution and promotion, Warner decided to scrap the film altogether.
2. The film is too «woke» or simply too bad
The New York Post was the first medium to report the cancellation of the film project. An anonymous source revealed the information, which was still internal to a film journalist, and also told him that the test screenings of “Batgirl” had been so poorly received that Warner had hardly expected any income from the film, but scathing film reviews.
Warner Bros. contradicts this hypothesis in the only public statement that the studio has made since the project was canceled: “The decision not to publish ‘Batgirl’ reflects strategic management decisions,” wrote a media spokesman for the American film magazine “The Hollywood Reporter”. Lead actress Leslie Grace is an “incredibly talented actress” and the decision has nothing to do with her performance. On the contrary: The studio is very grateful for the cooperation with the actors and the directors, and one hopes to be able to work together again in the “near future”.
Are they too «woke»? Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah at a film premiere in Amsterdam, January 20, 2020.
Despite the studio’s protestations, some film critics have called a new work by director Bilall Fallah so politically correct that it lacks depth. Fallah, along with three colleagues, oversaw the production of the TV series “Ms. Marvel» directed. It’s about a Muslim-American woman of Pakistani descent who is bullied at school before she develops supernatural powers. It was a “show for children” or an “Indian soap opera”, wrote critics, to “woke” in order to do justice to a more demanding audience.
The fact that considerations of political correctness also flowed into “Batgirl” is shown by the casting of a role: the film features a transgender character who is played by a transsexual actress. However, little is known about the entire content of the film and the exact story.
3. Warner Bros. speculates on free marketing
Both explanations seem plausible at first glance. However, legitimate doubts remain about the hypotheses. The demolition seems very expensive, after all, the previous expenditure of 90 million dollars corresponds to 9 percent of Warner Bros’ entire annual profit. In fact, film projects of this size were almost only stopped in exceptional situations such as the Covid pandemic.
Industry experts would therefore not be surprised if «Batgirl» could still be seen in a few months, at least in streaming, where the distribution costs are a fraction of those of a cinema release. Because of the wide coverage of the film, should it actually come to that, countless people who are not normally particularly interested in superhero films should have heard of “Batgirl” by then.