Coyote vs Acme Comic-Con debut gives shelved film its fan payoff
Ketchup Entertainment’s rescued Looney Tunes hybrid gets its first public screening ahead of an Aug. 28 theatrical release.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
Coyote vs. Acme reaches Comic-Con on Saturday night, a public bow that once looked unlikely after Warner Bros. Discovery shelved the movie in 2023 as a tax write-off, according to Variety.
Director Dave Green and star Lana Condor are in San Diego for the first public screening of the live-action and animated Looney Tunes comedy, which Ketchup Entertainment later picked up and set for an Aug. 28 theatrical release, Variety reported.
The movie centers on Wile E. Coyote taking Acme Corporation to court over products described in the film as intentionally defective. Condor appears alongside Will Forte and John Cena, with Looney Tunes characters including Roadrunner, Tweety and Bugs Bunny also in the mix, according to Variety.
For Green, the Comic-Con moment lands after a long and very public rescue campaign. When the shelving news broke in November 2023, he wrote on X that he had spent three years making a film about Wile E. Coyote, calling the character persistent, passionate and resilient. He added that, in the spirit of Wile E. Coyote, resilience and persistence would win out.
When is Coyote vs Acme coming out?
Coyote vs. Acme is scheduled to open in theaters on Aug. 28, according to Variety. Before that wider release, the film is getting its first public audience screening at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday night.
Condor told Variety she had been waiting years to see how fans would respond. “I want so badly for them to love it, and I think they will,” she said. “I’m so confident in that.”
The campaign around the movie produced one image that stuck: a single protester outside Warner Bros. Studios in the rain, dressed as Wile E. Coyote and carrying a sign that said, “Release Me,” Variety reported.
Condor said the team tried to find the mystery supporter and invite them, asking them to reveal themselves. Green told Variety the person did not come forward.
The anonymous fan still made it into the movie’s Comic-Con story. Green said the team recreated one of the protester’s masks for a previous Comic-Con panel after working out how the costume had been assembled. “It was made out of paper!” he said.
The screening arrives while Warner Bros. is facing another corporate shake-up, with Variety noting the planned merger with Paramount Skydance and industry concern around what it could mean. The report also noted the merger has been delayed.
Condor framed the movie’s release as a victory driven by people who defended it before they could see it. She told Variety that many fans stood up for the film sight unseen, which she linked to Wile E. Coyote’s own story in the movie.
“The reason that it’s going to come out at all, I firmly believe, is because of the fans,” Condor said. She added that the Comic-Con screening is meant to show them what they had been fighting for, saying she believes “the fight was for a good reason.”
This story draws on original reporting from Variety.